On Saturday the Giza Criminal Court postponed the trial of several high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood members to 30 June. The 14 defendants, including Muslim Brotherhood Supreme guide Mohamed Badie, Freedom and Justice Party Chairman Essam El-Erian, and controversial preacher Safwat Hegazy, face charges for inciting violence at Giza's Istiqama Mosque on 23 July. The defendants are accused of murder, attempted murder, planning and taking part in an illegal assembly, vandilising properties and causing injuries. Four of the defendants are being tried in absentia, including senior Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya member Assem Abdel Maged. Badie faces a slew of other charges in separate cases. He is among 638 who were sentenced to death on 28 April by the Minya Criminal Court for allegedly killing two policemen and breaking into the Edwa Police Station on 14 August. Badie also stands trial alongside 50 others for purportedly "forming an operations room to direct the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group to defy the government during the Rabaa sit-in dispersal, and spread chaos in the country [by] breaking into police stations, government institutions, private property, and churches". Al-Beltagy and Hegazy are also being tried for partaking in the kidnapping and torture of two police officers during the Rabaa sit-in. These trials are part of a series of other trials that began against Brotherhood figures after the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi last July, who himself is in detention and faces four separate trials. Trials against Morsi include: escaping from Wadi El-Natrun Prison on 28 January 2011, insulting the judiciary, inciting violence against protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012, and for espionage by working with foreign Islamist groups to "create chaos" in Egypt. Morsi is yet to receive a verdict in any of his trials. Badie was arrested from a Nasr City apartment on 20 August, while Morsi has been detained since his 3 July ouster. Morsi's location was unknown until his first appearance in court on 4 November.
