Trying times for Islamists

The military prosecutor called for the maximum penalty to be given to 94 people on trial for plotting to assassinate top officials and smuggle weapons to Hamas. Khaled Dawoud reports
The Supreme Military Court adjourned until 14 January a controversial case involving 94 alleged Islamist militants charged with plotting to assassinate top officials and attempting to smuggle weapons to the militant Palestinian group, Hamas.
In the most recent session of the trial on 5 January, the presiding judges heard the arguments by the military prosecutor, who called for the maximum penalty for all defendants. The military prosecutor said that the defendants had committed crimes that "threatened the state's security and stability." Defence lawyers said that the maximum penalty for the charges of joining "an illegal terrorist organisation" and "plotting to assassinate top officials" is capital punishment -- at least for the defendants accused of leading the group.
The military prosecutor, whose name cannot be mentioned for security reasons, told the court that the case was "different from other terrorist cases recently referred to military courts." He added, "we are confronting a new kind of [terrorist] organisation whose members were carefully selected. Some of them hold dual nationality, others are either businessmen, owners of companies or fitness centres. Members are Egyptians, foreigners, explosives experts, university graduates and students."
The majority of the accused were arrested in early May and first charged with illegally collecting money to send to Palestinians in support of their year-long uprising, and also to Chechens fighting Russian forces. Defence lawyers said that initially 83 defendants were detained. They include a prominent mosque preacher, Sheikh Nashaat Ibrahim, who worked in the eastern Cairo suburb of Nasr City. Also among the original detainees were a Palestinian who holds a Yemeni passport, three Dagestani nationals, and three Egyptians who hold dual nationality.
Prosecutors invoked the Emergency Law, in force since 1981, to repeatedly prolong the defendants' detention, but nobody had expected that the men would be put on trial before a military court.
After 11 September, authorities announced the arrest of 11 additional individuals, including another prominent mosque preacher, Sheikh Fawzi El-Sayed, and two Egyptians who had received flight training in Texas. All were referred to a military court in mid- October, and accused of membership in a previously unknown group that came to be called Al-Waad (the Promise). Seven defendants are being tried in absentia.
The military prosecutor, while wrapping up his case, did not mention the Palestinian uprising or the "confessions" made by some of the defendants that they were collecting funds to support the 15-month-long uprising. He said, however, that the defendants had "huge amounts of money that they sent abroad to support mujahidin [or armed militants]." The prosecutor also reiterated the charge that the defendants "planned to assassinate political figures, Muslim and Christian clergymen, artists, writers, a number of foreigners residing in Egypt and to blow up government buildings." The prosecutor did not give the names of the people alleged to be on the "hit-list," but earlier leaks from investigators said that the list included top officials, the Grand Imam of Al- Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, leading feminist and writer Nawal El-Saadawi, film director Inas El-Degheidi and script writer, Wahid Hamed. The latter three are known for their secular views and opposition to Islamist extremists.
One of the three Dagestani defendants was described by the prosecutor as an "explosives expert," who provided training for other members of the group. He said that Al-Waad''s leaders also "sent several defendants abroad to receive military training and to take part in real battles [presumably against the Russians in Chechnya] to be able to carry out at home the terrorist attacks they had planned."
The defendants, however, denied all charges, emphasising, in particular, that they were innocent of plotting to assassinate officials. On Monday, defence lawyers will start presenting their cases to the court in the last stage of the trial before setting a date for issuing a verdict.
Another military panel, meanwhile, resumed on 7 January the trial of 22 top members of the Muslim Brotherhood group who were arrested in early November. They were accused of making use of the ongoing US military campaign in Afghanistan to incite the public -- university students, in particular -- against the government. They were also charged with "joining an illegal organisation aimed at overthrowing the government." Defence lawyers cross examined state security officers, who were put on the stand by the military prosecutor to provide evidence against the defendants. The officers who carried out the investigations and arrests, however, did not reveal much information, citing security reasons and the need to protect their sources' identities. The case was adjourned until Sunday when other officers are scheduled to give their testimony.
Also on Tuesday, a Cairo court renewed for one week the detention of 24 Muslim Brotherhood members arrested in July for the charge of joining an illegal group. The 24 men were all arrested while allegedly taking part in a "secret meeting" in the low-income Cairo district of Imbaba. However, the defendants denied the charges, claiming that they were taking part in a social gathering. Although the charges made against the 24 defendants are the same as those made in other recent cases involving Brotherhood members, a Brotherhood lawyer told Al-Ahram Weekly that he did not expect the defendants to be referred to a military trial. "There are hardly any serious charges against them," the lawyer said.
Security sources said that they expected another case, involving more than 150 defendants, to be referred imminently to a military court. The 150 have been charged with carrying out several armed attacks in Egypt between 1992 and 1997. Defendants are expected to include members of the country's largest armed militant group, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya.
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