Prosecutors have indicted 52 members of the Muslim Brotherhood for sending men to Iraq, Chechnya and the Palestinian territories to undergo training to overthrow the Egyptian government. Forty-six of the indicted members were arrested in various parts of Egypt on Sunday and are now in detention for 15 days for investigation. The remaining six members are at large, a security official said on Tuesday. The security official said indictment states that as part of a plan to establish an Islamic state in Egypt, "they sent some Brothers to Palestine, Iraq and Chechnya to train for military operations."
A lawyer for the detainees, Abd al-Munim Abd al-Maksud, rejected as false both the charge of sending men abroad for military training and that of trying to overthrow the government to establish an Islamic state. "The danger is that such accusations might lead to a military trial," he told The Associated Press. Since Egypt suffered an Islamic insurrection in the mid-1990s, the government has put scores of Muslim Brotherhood members on trial in military courts.
Rights groups have criticised the prosecution of civilians in military courts, saying they do not meet international standards of due process and their verdicts cannot be appealed to a higher court. The detention of the 46 members appears to be part of a bid to curb the Brotherhood. Its members say the government resents their role in protests against the US-led occupation of Iraq and pro-Palestinian demonstrations. |