HUCKSTEP, Egypt, Dec 25 (AFP) - A host of lawyers, including the government candidate for chairman of the bar association, attended the opening Saturday of the trial of 20 Muslim Brothers to show solidarity with three of the defendants who are lawyers.
All 20 defendants were accused in the bill of indictment read in court of "harming social peace, belonging to an illegal organization whose goal is to suspend the constitution and trying to reactivate the Muslim Brotherhood."
If convicted, they could be sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor.
Twelve of the defendants belong to the six professional associations.
Two are professors of engineering at Asyut University in central Egypt and one is a former member of parliament.
About a hundred lawyers of various political sympathies, including Raga'i Attiya, the government's candidate to head the bar association, turned out at the opening of the trial. "The Egyptian constitution guarantees the freedom of thought and that includes religious thought," said Attiya. "If a group of people meet to organize ahead of union elections, such a meeting cannot be challenged by the law," he said.
The defendants' defense committee demanded their immediate release, but the court rejected their request and set the next hearing for Jan. 12.
The court is on the Huckstep military base, 30 km (19 miles) north of Cairo.
Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Maamun al-Hodeiby said their arrests Oct. 16 were related "to preparations ahead of the elections for the board of the lawyers' association."
Egypt has 21 professional unions with nearly three million members. Most of the unions are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood, which was founded in 1929 by Hasan al-Banna, calls for the establishment of a state based on Islamic law but rejects violence.
