Court recuses itself amid claims of bias against Rabea defendants

A Cairo criminal court recused itself Saturday in the case against Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Beltagy, preacher Safwat Hegazy, and two Rabea field-hospital doctors, Mohamed al-Zanaty and Abdel Azim Ibrahim.

The decision came after a request from a lawyer on the defense team. The lawyer said that “the court has to recuse itself if the defendants feel it might be biased against them,” according to the privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper.

The four men are accused of kidnapping two police officers, holding them against their will and torturing them in the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters inside the sprawling Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in.

Hegazy was detained on August 21 at Siwa, near the border with Libya, only days after security forces stormed two sit-ins in Cairo by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, leaving hundreds dead. Beltagy was arrested in an apartment in Giza on August 29.

Technically, the case falls under the jurisdiction of the Masr al-Gedida Criminal Court, but was referred to the Matareyya Criminal Court.

“The case was fabricated, and the referral decision is void, making these court sessions void,” Beltagy said in court Saturday. “If this trial continues, the judges will face punishment twice, both on earth and in the afterlife.”

Beltagy expressed his condolences to the South African people over the death Thursday of Nelson Mandela, according to the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. “There are 10,000 Nelson Mandelas in Egypt, standing strong against the military coup,” he continued, referring to the July 3 removal of former President Morsi.

The defendant continued his verbal attack against the recently completed draft constitution, saying that “it belongs in a trash bin” and should not go to a referendum, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Beltagy’s 17-year-old daughter, Asmaa, was killed during the security raid on the Rabea sit-in mid-August. “I’ve been questioned 15 times, and every time I ask the prosecution to hear my statement regarding the death of my daughter, but so far they haven’t,” Beltagy said.

The case files will now be sent to the Court of Appeals, which must then assign the case to another court for trial.