Brotherhood Leader Trial Adjourned To April 28

An Egyptian court on Thursday adjourned to April 28 the trial of Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 17 other senior group members charged with inciting the murder of opposition protesters last year, a judicial source said.



The source added that judges had decided to adjourn the trial in order to hear witness testimonies.



Badie, 70, and former Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Mahdi Akef, 85, both had to leave the court on Thursday due to illness, an Anadolu Agency reporter said.



At the beginning of the court session, Badie, the Brotherhood's supreme guide, passed out shortly after entering the defendants' cage and was rushed to a nearby hospital.



Moments later, Akef, the group's former supreme guide, asked to return to the Cairo military hospital to which he was moved several months ago due to illness – a request that the presiding judge approved.



During Thursday's court session, judges heard testimony from three witnesses for the prosecution.



The charges relate to violence that erupted last June outside the Brotherhood's headquarters in Cairo's Moqattam district, during which at least nine people were killed and scores injured.



The list of defendants also includes Badie's two deputies, Khairat al-Shater and Rashad Bayoumi; Saad al-Katatni, leader of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party; and senior party leaders Essam Erian and Mohamed al-Beltagi.



Also facing the same charges are former youth minister Osama Yassin and former presidential aide Ayman Hodhod.



The defendants are accused of distributing weapons and planning attacks on opposition protesters outside the group's headquarters.



The defendants, for their part, dismiss all the accusations against them as politically motivated.



Egyptian authorities have unleashed a massive crackdown on the Brotherhood since the bloody dispersal last year of two protest camps staged by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi in which hundreds of demonstrators were killed by security forces.



Since then, Egypt's military-backed authorities have rounded up hundreds of the Brotherhood's senior and mid-ranking members, hundreds of whom remain in detention.



By Sayed Fathi



englishnews@aa.com.tr - Kahire