Muslim Brotherhood leaders' trial political, lawyer says

PanARMENIAN.Net - The leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was beaten by police during his arrest, and his trial is part of an attempt by the military to eliminate its political foes, a defense lawyer said on Sunday, August 25, according to Reuters.

The trial of Mohamed Badie, the Brotherhood's "General Guide", and his two deputies opened on Sunday but was immediately adjourned until October 29 for security reasons.

Badie and other leaders of Egypt's oldest Islamist group were arrested after army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi deposed the freely elected President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 after mass protests. The army has installed a civilian government to rule pending a new constitution and a fresh vote.

Sitting at the lawyers' club by the Nile after the hearing, the lawyer, Mohamed Gharib, said Badie refused to recognize the authority of the judiciary after Morsi's removal or to answer questions during his interrogation in jail last week.

"As soon as General Sisi finished his speech on July 3, in which he announced the suspension of the constitution and the appointment of an interim president ... Khairat al-Shater, Saad Katatni, Rashad Bayoumy and Mohammed Mehdi Akef were arrested," said Gharib, referring to some of the senior Brotherhood officials now behind bars.

"This shows that the leaders of the bloody military coup want to get rid of their political foes."

Egypt's judges fiercely defend their independence. Bayoumy and Shater went on trial alongside Badie on Sunday.