Brothers call for a week of mass protests

The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated National Alliance to Protect Legitimacy called for a week of mass protests, dubbed “Our Constitution, 2012,” in an official statement on Thursday, following the interim government’s announcement that a referendum on the draft constitution will be held on January 15 and 16.

“Participating in the referendum is a betrayal of the martyrs; defend your legitimate constitution, light the fire of revolution in all squares and mobilize in a million man march on Friday, the start of a new revolutionary week named ‘Our Constitution, 2012’ and make the revolution your inspiration,” the statement read.

The military leaders, who deposed the Brotherhood’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July, are suffering an “obvious nervousness” and seeking “fake legitimacy” and "temporary immunity” through this referendum, the statement added.

The Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, declared in an official statement Wednesday that they would be boycotting the referendum, deeming any participation as an acknowledgment of what they refer to as a “coup against legitimacy.”

The Muslim Brotherhood also condemned Thursday what it called “fabricated charges” against Morsi and Brotherhood leaders due to stand trial for espionage and terrorism, following a decision by the prosecutor general on Wednesday.

The Brotherhood’s London office said in an official statement that the military leaders “have become more brazen in their attempts to silence the legal opposition permanently.”

“In a new bid to discredit President Morsi and the senior leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, prosecutors have trumped-up charges of ‘espionage’ against the accused,” charging them for alleged association with Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards while in office, the statement added.

According to the prosecution, Morsi and his associates sought military training for Brotherhood members by smuggling them through illegal tunnels into the Gaza Strip, where they allegedly received combat-training at the hands of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The plan was allegedly for the trained militants to return to Egypt to carry out terrorist operations at the behest of Morsi, the prosecution added.

Charges of terrorism and conspiring with foreign elements could carry the death penalty, or life imprisonment.

Defense lawyers dismissed all charges as being baseless and trumped-up.

Other senior Brotherhood figures charged alongside Morsi include: Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and his two deputies Khairat al-Shater and Mahmoud Ezzat, former parliamentary speaker Mohamed Saad al-Katatny, members of the Guidance Bureau Mohamed el-Beltagy, Essam al-Erian and Saad al-Husseini, former head of the office of the presidency Mohamed Refaa al-Tahtawi and his deputy Asaad el-Sheikha, director of the office of the former president Ahmed Abdel-Ati, and 25 other members.

“In a new episode of the military coup’s crimes against the Egyptian people, the junta’s judges continue to fabricate allegations against the democratically elected president and a number of leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a desperate attempt to legitimize their illegal coup. It is not hidden to anyone that they are the real criminals who must be brought to justice for their crimes against humanity, which they wish to legitimize through an illegitimate constitution,” the statement quoted an unnamed Brotherhood spokesperson as saying.

The group urged governments and human rights organizations locally and internationally to demand an end to the imprisonment of Morsi and his associates.