(AFP PHOTO / AHMED GAMIL)
The Shubra Al-Kheima Criminal Court postponed on Wednesday the trial of prominent Islamist leaders to 8 April. Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie, prominent Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) leader Mohamed Al-Beltagy, conservative preacher Safwat Hegazy, and FJP member and former Minister of Youth Osama Yassin are among the 48 defendants in the case facing charges connected with allegedly inciting violence and blocking the Cairo-Alexandria agricultural road in Qaliub.
The court decided to adjourn the hearing, and will continue listening to witness testimonies next week, according to state-owned MENA.
Muslim Brotherhood leader Badie faces a slew of other charges in separate cases. On Tuesday the supreme guide appeared in court with a number of other senior Brotherhood members, standing accused of “forming an operations room to direct the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group to defy the government during the Rabaa sit-in dispersal, and to spread chaos in the country [by] breaking into police stations, government institutions, private property, and churches.” The trial was postponed to 6 April, and the defence team representing Badie and 50 others walked out of the court after the judge told a defendant to “hold his tongue”, according to defence lawyer Mohamed Damati.
Al-Beltagy and Hegazy also stand trial for allegedly torturing two police officers at Rabaa Al-Adaweya.
