CAIRO – 4 September 2018: A military court adjourned Monday the re-trial of 304 defendants accused of attempting to assassinate Assistant General Prosecutor Zakaria Abdel Aziz in 2016.
FILE - Assistant General Prosecutor Zakaria Abdel Aziz
The defendants are accused of being part of Hasm group designated last January by the U.S. Treasury Department as a terrorist movement.
In January 2017, Egypt's High State Security Prosecution referred 304 people to Military Prosecution for their membership in Hasm, which is charged with committing 14 attacks targeting security forces and public figures over the second half of 2016.
The Military Prosecution referred in October the defendants, including member of the Brotherhood's guidance office, Mohammed Ali Beshr, to military trial.
Hasm is an Islamist militant group operating in Egypt. In Arabic, the word “Hasm” means decisiveness. Hasm has been associated with nearly every terrorist attack in Egypt during the last year.
Hasm group is reportedly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group which is deemed illegal in Egypt. However, the Brotherhood’s media spokesman, Talaat Fahmi, denied the Brotherhood’s links to Hasm to Turkish-led Anadolu agency in December 2016. He said the Brotherhood could never be linked to those who commit violent acts that lead to bloodshed.
Al-Nahda sit-in dispersal
Giza Criminal Court adjourned the retrial of 32 defendants in the case known in media as “Al-Nahda sit-in dispersal, to October 3.
Rabaa al-Adawiya during the dispersal of Morsi supporter sit-ins, August, 14, 2013 – Wikimedia Commons/Amsg07
The defendants face charges including organizing protests that aimed to disturb peace and endanger the lives of citizens, in addition to resisting policemen tasked with dispersing their protests. The defendants are also accused of deliberate murder and combatting the June 30 revolution in 2013.
Dozens of policemen and hundreds of Mohamed Morsi supporters were killed during the dispersal of pro-Morsi protests in Al-Nahda and Rabaa al-Adaweya squares on August 14, 2013, following the ousting of former Muslim Brotherhood affiliated President Morsi on July 3, 2013. The two parties held each other responsible for the violence.
The authorities affirmed that dispersing the “armed sit-ins” was a must to “spare civilian blood.”
Abou Treika’s tax evasion
Concerning the retired popular Egyptian footballer Mohamed Abu Treika, Tax Evasion Misdemeanor Court decided Monday to postpone his tax evasion lawsuit that dates back to 2008-2009.
Egypt's captain Mohamed Aboutrika celebrates after scoring against Brazil during their men's Group C football match at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff July 26, 2012. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Abou Treika is charged with evading to pay LE 710,000 ($39,643) in taxes for taking part in two advertisements for soft drinks and communications companies.
The trial was scheduled to take place on September 24. Abou Treika’s lawyer did not attend Monday’s trial.
Abou Treika is not currently in Egypt. Last April, the Cairo Criminal Court has reordered placing Abou Treika on the terror list for five years over alleged links with Muslim Brotherhood group designated by the state as a terrorist group. However, in July, the Court of Cassation accepted Abou Treika's appeal against the decision.
Late in August, the Cassation Court decided to send Abou Treika’s lawsuit back to the Cairo Appeal Court for reconsideration.
Developed operations cell
A military court adjourned the re-trial of four defendants who were previously sentenced to death to September 10.
A re-trial had been ordered after the court received a report revealing that the material possessed by the defendants is not designated by the Interior Ministry as explosive.
FILE - Austin County Jail Museum, Bellville, Texas
A military court had sentenced eight defendants to death and 12 defendants to life imprisonment over accusations of planning to assassinate political and military officials, targeting military and police institutions, establishing an outlawed group, participating in the assassination of police and military personnel and possessing unlicensed weapons.
The prosecution had also accused the defendants of possessing weapons and explosives with the aim of using them to disturb peace.
Bishop Epiphanius murder
The first trial of the two Coptic Christian monks, charged with killing Head of St. Macarius Monastery in Wadi El-Natroun Bishop Epiphanius, was scheduled for September 23, stated Alexandria Court of Appeal on Monday.
Former monks Ash'eyaa and Faltaous al-Makary – Press photo
On August 19, the court charged expelled monk Ash’eyaa, whose birth name is Wael Saad, and Monk Faltaous al-Makary, whose birth name is Raymond Rasmi Mansour, with the deliberate murder of Bishop Epiphanius.
Bishop Epiphanius was found dead on July 29 inside the monastery and two monks, who were kept in detention pending investigation since then, confessed their crime.
Monk Faltaous al-Makary tried to commit suicide via slitting his wrist and then jumping off a high building inside the monastery. On August 21, he was hospitalized due to a degraded case of gangrene in his leg. Also, Ash’eyaa tried to commit suicide a day after the murder.
Following the death of Bishiop Epiphanius, Pope Tawadros II issued new monasticism laws, topping which is the deactivation of the social media accounts of all monks and bishops. The death of Bishop Epiphanius revealed the struggle between the school of Pope Shenouda and the ecclesiastical school of Matthew the poor.
Additional reporting by Egypt Today Staff
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