494 MB supporters on trial in Al-Fath mosque incident

Cairo Criminal Court will hear the first session of the trial of 494 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood for their role in acts of violence last August in the Ramses area of Cairo and nearby Al-Fath Mosque, state-owned news website Ahram Gate reported.

The Al-Fath mosque incident, which took place on August 17, killed 44 people and injured 59, including 22 members of security forces, the website said.

The court session is taking place at the Police Trustees’ Institute in Cairo’s Tora Prison complex.

The prosecutor general is accusing the defendants of desecrating the mosque, causing delays to prayers, murder, using the mosque for terrorist purposes, crowding, thuggish acts, destroying public and private property, setting fire to property, assaulting securing forces, possession of automatic fire weapons, pellets, bullets, fireworks, blocking the road, causing delays to public transport and compromising public safety, Ahram Gate reports.

Last August, Egypt’s security forces violently cleared sit-ins by supporters of the former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. International rights group Human Rights Watch described the August 14 dispersals as “the most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history."