(MAHER ISKANDER/AFP/Getty Images)
Two separate trials involving Freedom and Justice Party Secretary General Mohamed Beltagy and other leading Muslim Brotherhood leaders were held in Cairo and Giza courts on Monday.
Beltagy and controversial imam and Muslim Brotherhood supporter Safwat Hegazy appeared in court in Cairo’s Tora Prison for the torture of two police officers at a pro-Mohamed Morsi sit-in at Rabaa Al-Adaweya Mosque in Nasr City.
Mohamed Damati, lawyer for the defendants, requested that each officer give his testimony in a separate session as to not influence one another, reported state-run Al-Ahram.
The pair is accused of handcuffing the police officers and attempting to kill them. They are also accused of being part of a terrorist group.
As Beltagy and Hagazy entered the court, they held up the four-finger Rabaa gesture and shouted slogans against the military-back interim government, said Al-Ahram.
In a second case, Khaled Azhari, Minister of Manpower and Immigration under deposed president Mohamed Morsi, and two others are being tried in the Giza Misdemeanor Court on charges of hiding Beltagy, who had a warrant out for his arrest, in a safe house on the outskirts of Cairo after Morsi’s ouster.
Prosecutor Mark Nagy has asked for the judge to deliver the maximum sentence to Azhari, citing that there is sufficient evidence and Azhari was “caught red-handed” in the same residence as Beltagy.
Brotherhood leaders, including Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and Morsi, are defendants in several other cases. Charges include espionage, prison break, insulting the judiciary and inciting the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012. Their trials have faced repeated delays.
Azhari was arrested with Beltagy in the village of Teresa outside Cairo on 29 August. Mohamed Badie was arrested from a Nasr City apartment on 20 August, while Morsi has been detained since his 3 July ouster. Morsi’s location was unknown until his first appearance in court on 4 November.
