Egypt’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday ordered two new mass trial for
919 suspected Islamists on charges that include murder, despite
international criticism of an earlier trial that issued death sentences
against hundreds of defendants.
Students, most of them Islamists,
held protests Wednesday against the death sentences in several
universities, turning into clashes with security forces that left one
18-year-old student dead at Cairo University, the Health Ministry said.
The new trials will be held in Minya province, south of Cairo, where a
judge on Monday sentenced 529 defendants to death on charges of killing
a police officer during an attack on a police station last summer.
The
verdict brought an outcry from rights groups and criticism from the
United Nations, European Union and United States over the cursory trial,
which lasted only two sessions and in which lawyers said they were
denied the right to make their case or question witnesses.
Egyptian
authorities are holding a series of mass trials in a crackdown on the
Muslim Brotherhood and other supporters of former president Mohamed
Morsi since the military removed him in July. About 16,000 have been
arrested over the past months, including most of the Brotherhood’s top
leaders.
The new trials bring the total number of defendants in
Minya along to 2,147 in four trials, including the one in which the
verdicts were issued on Monday.
All the trials are connected to a
wave of violence in mid-August after security forces broke up two
pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo. More than 600 were killed in the sit-in
break-up, setting off a backlash of violence for days as suspected Morsi
supporters attacked police stations, government installations and
churches in towns around Egypt, leaving hundreds dead.
In one of
the new trials announced Wednesday, 715 defendants, including the Muslim
Brotherhood’s top leader Mohammed Badie, are charged with killing six
people and attempted murder of 51 others during attacks on state
institutions on Aug. 14 in the city of Samalout. Only 160 defendants in
this case are in detention. The prosecutor asked for the arrest of the
rest.
In the second trial, 204 defendants, also including Badie,
face charges of inciting violence. Only three are in detention in this
case, in which the charges include attacking state institutions and
police in al-Adawa town, also in Minya.
A court will set a date for the trials.
A
judicial official said the same judge who issued the death sentences
Monday will preside over the two new trials. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the
press.
On Tuesday, the same judge, Said Youssef, began another
mass trial of 683 defendants – again including Badie – over a separate
attack on a police station that killed two policemen.
On
Wednesday, hundreds of largely Islamist university students in a number
of universities protested against the mass death sentences.
At
Cairo University, hundreds of students who attempted to take their
protest outside the campus were met with volleys of tear gas from
police. Khadiga el-Kholy, a student participating in the protest, said
the police force gave no warnings before firing the tear gas, sending
the students rushing back on campus.
Students responded by
throwing stones and fireworks and hurling tear gas canisters back at the
security forces in pitched street battles. TV footage showed security
in civilian clothes detaining protesters and taking them away in
blindfolds. There were also images of the security seizing fire bombs
from young protesters. El-Kholy said police fired birdshot at the
protesters.
“We wanted to escalate our protest because of those
death sentences, which included university students,” she said, adding
that the protesters had sought to move into a nearby public square
outside the campus. “We want to break the barriers that the security
forces have imposed on all the squares.”
In the Nile Delta city of
Zagazig, police said students damaged the facade of an administrative
building in the local university and clashed with rival students,
prompting to security forces to enter the campus and arrest eight
rioters.
Thousands of Morsi supporters are already arrested and
most are facing trials on a number of charges, including inciting
violence, and rioting.
Morsi’s Islamist supporters have continued
to hold protests against his ouster. Authorities accuse the group of
fomenting violence and terrorism, a claim the group denies.
The
pro-Morsi camp has refused to recognize the new political road map
installed by the military after his ouster. Presidential elections are
now expected next month and the country’s military chief is widely
expected to run and win.
