An Egyptian military court notorious for its harsh verdicts convicted on Tuesday 25 key members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood and sentenced them to up to 10 years in jail, a security official said.
The charges against members of Egypt’s largest opposition group included money laundering and terrorism, but it was not immediately clear if the 25 were found guilty of both offences, according to the official.
A verdict in the year-long trial came amid a government crackdown on the Brotherhood and unrest in Egypt over rising food prices and stagnant wages. More than 800 Brotherhood members have been detained so far this year, in an effort to thwart its influence as an ageing President Hosni Mubarak enters his 27th year in power.
Amnesty International called Tuesday’s sentences ”a perversion of justice” and demanded the men be released and retried in a civilian court.
”Today’s sentences leave little doubt that the Egyptian authorities are determined to undermine what has become the main opposition group in the country,” the London-based human rights group said in a statement.
Trying civilians before military courts, it said, ”flouts international standards of fair trial and is inherently unjust”.
The security official, who attended the trial at the military court north of Cairo but spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media, also said that 15 other defendants were acquitted.
Defence lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud said the judge entered the courtroom, issued the ruling and left without notifying the opposition group’s defence lawyers, who stood outside the courthouse after police officers had prevented them from entering the courtroom.
Among those sentenced was the Brotherhood’s chief strategist, Khayrat el-Shater, and its prominent financier, businessman Hassan Malek. They received seven-year sentences each. Their property, believed to be worth millions of dollars, was also confiscated — a harsh blow to the group’s financial bases, the lawyer said.
Detained
Hundreds of Brotherhood members and their supporters have been detained in successive security sweeps over the past 18 months. The 40 senior figures on trial were detained as part of the sweeps. Seven of them were tried in absentia and are believed to be outside the country, and some of their whereabouts are unknown.
Five of those absent received 10-year prison terms, including Youssef M Nada, a Swiss-based, Egyptian-born businessman whose company has been listed by the United States since 2001 as an organisation accused of helping fund terrorism.
Among those acquitted were a journalist and another businessman, Abdel-Rahman Saudi, who runs a supermarket chain in Egypt.
According to Abdel-Maksoud, a recent amendment to the Egyptian judicial system allows defendants to appeal within 60 days.
Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the group’s supreme leader, slammed the verdict, describing Egyptian authorities as ”corrupt” and a ”bunch of gangsters”. Akef said there was ”no evidence” against them and that he had ”expected the court to acquit them all”.
”These are gangs, not politicians, those who rule this country,” he said in a telephone interview. He would not discuss the Brotherhood’s next steps.
Tight security
Before the verdict was announced, authorities threw a tight security ring around the courthouse, with hundreds of police officers setting up checkpoints on the road leading to the court. They searched vehicles and chased away reporters and family members of the defendants.
At least 20 people, including relatives and reporters, were detained, according to a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
El-Shater (58) joined the Brotherhood in 1974. He has been jailed four times for a total of seven years on charges relating to his membership in the Brotherhood, which was outlawed more than 50 years ago. Malek, the businessman, owns a chain of furniture stores and textile factories and is known as one of the group’s main financiers.
Those sentenced on Tuesday have been in custody since December 2006.
Their arrests were believed to have been sparked by a militia-style demonstration by student Brotherhood members from the al-Azhar university in Cairo. At the time, the demonstrators wore black masks similar to those of the militant Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah groups. The demonstration prompted a government investigation into whether the Brotherhood had resurrected its military wing.
After their arrests, the Brotherhood figures were referred to a military court, a move that is authorised under emergency laws in force since 1981 that allow the president to refer civilians to military tribunals.
Brotherhood members have since been routinely tried before military courts, but the latest trial is the largest in years.
The Brotherhood won 88 of Parliament’s 454 seats in the 2005 elections, with its candidates running as independents. — Sapa-AP