CAIRO (AP) --
Egyptian courts on Sunday heard separate court cases against former
President Hosni Mubarak and top leaders of his archrival, the Muslim
Brotherhood, both over allegations of killing protesters in separate
instances.
Egyptian media portrayed the
prosecution of longtime foes as "trials of the two regimes," an attempt
to show that both Islamists and secular-leaning Mubarak authoritarian
regimes are alike after a July 3 military coup toppled President
Mohammed Morsi, a Brotherhood member.
Weeks of
mass rallies by Muslim Brotherhood supporters over Morsi's ouster have
weakened over the past days as security forces have detained many
Brotherhood leaders. The military-backed government has responded by
relaxing curfew hours, trying to signal a return to normalcy across the
country.
"We have crossed the swamps and muddy
pools, and now we are on the safe side," Ahmed el-Musalamani, a
spokesman for interim-president's spokesman, said Sunday.
He added: "We have overcome the tough phase."
At
a heavily-fortified courtroom in eastern Cairo, Mubarak looked relaxed
in dark sunglasses and white clothes as he appeared for his first court
appearance since he was released from prison last week and transferred
to a military hospital. The 85-year-old ex-president sat in a chair next
to his two sons who are being tried in a separate corruption-related
case.
Mubarak has been in detention since
April 2011. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison last
year for failing to stop the killing of some 900 protesters in the
18-day 2011 uprising, but his sentence was overturned on appeal. In
April, his retrial opened along with those of his security chief and six
top police commanders. His trial has been postponed to Sept. 14.
In
a separate hearing Sunday, top Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and
five other members of the Islamist Brotherhood saw their hearings
postponed until Oct. 29. The defendants, two of whom are still in hiding
and being tried in absentia, face charges stemming from clashes outside
the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters on June 30 that left nine dead.
The four in detention were not present in the downtown Cairo courtroom
for security reasons.
The military ousted
Morsi after millions took to the street demanding he step down. He's
been held incommunicado since his overthrow. Prosecutors have accused
him of conspiring with foreign groups to break out of prison during the
chaos of the 2011 uprising against Mubarak. He is also being
investigated in connection to another case of protesters' killings in
December.
Authorities allege that Morsi
supporters have committed acts of terrorism since the coup, pointing to a
string of attacks against churches and government buildings. The
Brotherhood and Morsi supporters deny their protests are violent and
deny that they attack churches, accusing authorities of smearing their
movement.
Rights groups, however, say Islamist
groups have incited violence against Christians, who have been blamed
collectively for Morsi's overthrow.
The
Egyptian Initiative For Personal Rights issued a report on Sunday
documenting what it said was an "unprecedented spike in scale of
sectarian violence and reprisals" against Coptic Christians over a
four-day period in August.
At least 45
churches came under attack and a total of seven citizens were killed,
the initiative said. It blamed security forces for failing to intervene
and Islamist groups for helping to "feed the current wave of sectarian
attacks."
Islamists also issued renewed calls
Sunday for demonstrations in a statement. Arrests and killings appear to
have weakened the Brotherhood's ability to mobilize its following.
Calls for rallies fizzled out on Saturday as the government eased up the
curfew hours affecting much of the country.
The
military-backed interim government meanwhile is pursuing a fast-tract
transition plan that it says will return the country to democracy.
On
Sunday, a 10-member panel of experts handed a first draft of proposed
constitutional amendments to the interim president, a first step toward
amending the now-suspended charter drafted last year under Morsi. A
second panel of 50 members will work on the amendments before finalizing
them and putting them for public vote.
Once the constitution is adopted, the plan calls for presidential and parliamentary elections early next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment