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HUCKSTEP (AFP) - Egypt's high military court on Sunday postponed for the second time its verdict in the trial of 20 Muslim Brothers charged with reactivating their banned movement. The Brotherhood, which is partly tolerated but officially banned here, is accused of encouraging violence, although the group says publicly it is seeking to establish an Islamic state through peaceful means. The court at the Huckstep military base, 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Cairo, was due to pass judgment Sunday but gave no reason for the hearing's deferral until November 7th. But Muslim Brotherhood lawyers at the court said they believed it had been postponed so the defendants would not be able to stand for parliament in November's legislative elections if found not guilty. The defendants, including two university professors and a former member of parliament, are accused of damaging social peace, belonging to an illegal organization and trying to gain control of trade unions. President Hosni Mubarak provoked outrage from human rights groups and sparked student protests when he issued a decree last October ordering the civilians to be tried before the high military court. The defendants have been in jail since their arrest in October, which marked the biggest crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in four years. Since then, well over 100 other Muslim Brothers have been arrested. The trial began on December 25th and a verdict had been expected July 30th before the first deferral. Military court rulings cannot be contested through the courts and, if found guilty, the defendants' only recourse would be to appeal to Mubarak. But the president has never commuted the sentences of Islamists tried by military courts. |
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