MB defendants request new judge in ‘Rabea operations room’ case

The trial of 51 Muslim Brotherhood leaders was suspended Sunday pending an enquiry into one of the defendant’s requests to replace the main judge for the case.

Salah Soltan presented an official request for the removal of the head of the court after he yelled at him during the last session when he tried to talk, telling him to “shut up.”

The defendants include Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and spokesperson Gehad al-Haddad, accused of forming an operations room through which they instructed members of the group to confront the state and spread chaos following the dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda sit-ins in August last year.

State-owned Al-Ahram newspaper said the case is known as the “Rabea operations room" case.

Before the court session started, Badie gave the lawyers a religious motivational speech from the dock.

Soltan also complained of a lack of medical care for his son Mohamed, who is on hunger strike and detained with him in the same case. He said his son had fainted in the bathroom and the doctor came 17 hours later, putting his life in danger.

Although Soltan said the defendants are cooperating with security, the officer taking them out of their cells swore at and insulted them, he alleged.

During the session, the judge charged Sultan with contempt for telling him that he studied law and “is equal to him in [his] knowledge of the field.”

This was the second case to be reviewed in the same court on Sunday. The first involved the trial of other Brotherhood leaders, including Badie as well as Saad al-Katatny and Khairat al-Shater, for violence that occurred in front of the Brotherhood’s headquarters in Moqattam on June 30.

The case was postponed because some of the defendants were not present due to their appearance in other cases.

The defendants’ lawyers requested coordination between the various cases because some of them are due in two courts at the same time. They also complained that they were not allowed to speak to the defendants.