Military trial of Egyptian Islamists to continue
CAIRO: An Egyptian court has overturned a ruling by a lesser tribunal that found the transfer of 40 Muslim Brotherhood detainees to a military court was illegal, Brotherhood and security sources said on Monday.
The court ruling effectively clears the way for the resumption of the military trial of the detainees, some of whom have been in police custody since December.
Lawyers for Egypt's strongest opposition group had called for a change of venue for the hearing on the grounds that the judges examining the previous ruling were all assigned to various government offices as paid consultants, and as such could not be impartial.
The court rejected the motion. "All these (judges) are assigned. . . to the ministries and the presidency. So of course there's an objection to this body hearing a case. . . where the opponent is the president," said Brotherhood lawyer Abdel Moniem Abdel Maqsoud.
A court ruled on May 8 that President Hosni Mubarak's referral of the detainees to military courts in February had been illegal, and said the defendants should be tried in civilian courts.
That ruling required the authorities to free the detainees but the government often ignores court release orders in cases involving opponents, and they have remained in detention.
Abdel Maqsoud said the Brotherhood's defence team would fight the decision, but that the legal proceedings would inevitably take time. "It seems that all paths lead to the military court now. There's an insistence that they be referred to the military court."
Mubarak referred the 40 members of the Brotherhood, including third-in-command Khairat el-Shatir, to a military court on terrorism and money-laundering charges in February, the first such referrals since 2001.
The government has stepped up a crackdown on the Brotherhood since the group's strong showing in 2005 elections gave it around a fifth of seats in parliament.
It has targeted Brotherhood finances and detained or arrested hundreds. Parliament lifted the immunity of two members of the Brotherhood last Wednesday as a prerequisite for sending them to trial.
A set of constitutional amendments approved in a referendum in March gave Mubarak broad powers to transfer anyone suspected of "terrorism" to military courts, known for tough and swift verdicts. But the order transferring the detainees to the military courts was made before the constitution was changed