CAIRO - Abdel-Rahman Fathi
Ousted President Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood group, will stand trial within days on charges of killing protesters outside Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace late last year, legal sources told Anadolu Agency.
The deposed leader will be referred to court once authorities have completed investigations into Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, leading Brotherhood member Mohamed al-Beltagi, Salafist preacher Safwat Hegazi, and several members of the Brotherhood's authoritative Guidance Office, the sources added.
"The case was supposed to have been referred to the criminal court in the past period, after investigations into the Brotherhood supreme guide and his two deputies, Khairat al-Shater and Rashad al-Bayoumi, were completed," the sources said.
"But the recent arrest of al-Beltagi and Hegazi has led to a delay of the referral until investigations are finished," they added.
Al-Beltagi and Hegazi were both arrested earlier this month after security forces violently dispersed two protest camps staged by Morsi supporters in Cairo.
Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, has not been seen in public – or been allowed to communicate with his family – since his July 3 ouster by the powerful military following mass demonstrations against his presidency.
The ousted president faces charges of "conspiring" with the Gaza-based Hamas movement to carry out "hostile acts" inside Egypt, helping prisoners – including himself – escape from jail during Egypt's 2011 revolution, sabotaging public property and abducting security personnel.
A lawyer for al-Beltagi, meanwhile, accused Egyptian security forces of physically abusing his client.
"Once al-Beltagi entered the prison, a police officer slapped him in the face and insulted him," Sayed Nasr, a member of al-Beltagi's defense team, told AA.
The lawyer added that the Brotherhood leader had refused to answer questions posed by investigators.
"He [al-Beltagi] said he doesn't recognize the prosecution because it is the result of a military coup," Nasr said, in reference to Morsi's overthrow by the army early last month.
Al-Beltagi, however, stressed his respect for Egypt's judiciary and all Egyptian state institutions, requesting that he be investigated by a judge because – according to the lawyer – "he is on bad terms with the current prosecutor-general and does not recognize his legitimacy."
Nasr went on to complain that his client was being held in solitary confinement in a very small cell and was being provided with only one meal per day.
"But after pressures were exerted, the authorities allowed him to obtain a copy of the Quran and some clothes," the lawyer added.
On Friday, judicial authorities ordered al-Beltagi remanded in custody for a further 15 days pending investigation into charges that he "formed and ran an armed gang with the aim of committing violence and assaulting public and private property."
The lawyer described the charges against al-Beltagi as "politically motivated."
englishnews@aa.com.tr
