Update: Leading Brothers on trial for Giza clashes

Several leading members of the recently banned Muslim Brotherhood group are standing trial Monday on charges of inciting violence during July clashes in Giza.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, Vice Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Essam al-Erian and member of the FJP’s Executive Office Mohamed al-Beltagy, as well as Islamist preacher Safwat Hegazy, are charged with inciting murder, terrorizing citizens, possessing weapons and attacking security forces during the clashes, which left nine people dead.

The trial of 15 figures commenced Monday at a Giza criminal court and was adjourned in the afternoon to reconvene on February 11, reported state news agency MENA. Badie reportedly gave a religious speech from the cage in his first public appearance post-arrest in late August. 

Egypt’s state TV reported that the courtroom was calm as Muslim Brotherhood supporters chanted that the trial was illegitimate. Defendants inside the dock held up the four-finger sign, a gesture that has come to symbolize a tribute to hundreds who died during the August dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in demanding the reinstatement of President Mohamed Morsi.

In a speech likened to a Friday sermon, Badie talked “justice and the heavens,” state media reported. The judge requested that he cut his speech short, but Badie reportedly continued. 

On July 22, 2013, clashes erupted in Giza Square between local residents and Morsi supporters who marched there from a sit-in around Cairo University and Nahda Square. 

On Sunday, Badie and Beltagy, along with 48 other defendants, were referred to criminal court in a separate case on allegations they incited violence in Qalyub in July. The charges are related to clashes in the city north of Cairo, in which two people died during confrontations with police.

A court ruling on September 23 banned the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates following Morsi’s removal on July 3 and an ongoing state crackdown on the group.

Badie and Beltagy were arrested in late August as scores of political figures were rounded up by the police after the August 14 dispersal of two sit-ins demanding Morsi’s reinstatement.