(AFP File PHOTO / AHMED GAMIL)
Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat referred Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammad Badie and 51 others to criminal court in February 2014 for “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”.
Judge Nagy Shehata had handed Mohamed Soltan’s father, Salah, and 13 others, including Badie, a death sentence on 16 March.
The main charge of the case is “spreading lies through the operations room”, and Mohamed’s accusation is having a hand in spreading those lies, said defence lawyer Halim Henish.
“The charge is loose, and general, and the investigations did not provide any evidence,” Henish said.
One example of “lies” would be that around 1,000 people died during the dispersal of the sit-ins, Henish stated. The defence put forth documents that the government itself declared so, in the words of the then-prime minister Hazem El-Beblawi as well as the health ministry.
The original prosecution’s defence argument was never presented to court, and is thus unattainable, said defence lawyer Ismail Abu Baraka. However he said that it was the same as the prosecution’s statement, “with added insults to the Muslim Brotherhood”.
The prosecution’s statement
The room was formed with the aim of making Egypt appear unable to govern in the eyes of the international community, to be replaced with a government formed by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The alleged operations room was relocated after the dispersal of sit-ins by supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi at Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Nahda squares on 14 August, 2013.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been accused of fabricating pictures and scenes that imply fatalities and injuries among demonstrators. They were also accused of preparing statements in foreign languages and publishing them outside Egypt to imply that security forces used excessive force and violated human rights.
The group monitored police institutions, which they intended to attack when least guarded
The Brotherhood had formed several media centres to support their plot, among which are RASSD, and Ikhwan Online.
When searching the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters, police had found foreign, as well as local currencies, with papers concerning the armed forces and police.
