An Egyptian security court yesterday delayed sentencing in the trial of 23 Egyptians and three Britons accused of plotting to oust Arab governments, with the defense blaming the postponement on an attack on Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher in Jerusalem. Britons Reza Pankhurst, Ian Malcolm Nisbett, and Maajid Nawaz, and 23 Egyptians, who have been on trial since October last year, stand accused of belonging to and trying to reactivate the banned Hizb-ut Tahrir Al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party), and aiming to overthrow governments in the region. The defendants deny charges they called for the establishment of a new Islamic order and have previously said they were tortured. They are accused of spreading propaganda for the Hizb, which is banned in Egypt but not in Britain.
| Though it should be. It's not often an Arab nation shows better sense than Britain, but it does happen... |
The court sources said it was not immediately clear why the verdict had been postponed until March 25. One of the defendants, an Egyptian, has not yet been arrested and is being tried in absentia. Egyptian officials have said Egypt investigates reports of torture and prosecutes perpetrators.
| My sympathy meter didn't budge... |
Security sources said yesterday police had arrested and detained more than 80 other people during the past few days who had previously been investigated in relation to the case. They were later freed without charge. The sources did not say why they had been rearrested, but added all 80 were Egyptian and were apprehended in Cairo and the coastal city of Alexandria. An Interior Ministry official told Reuters they had no information on the matter and had issued no statement. The Egyptian government has arrested and referred hundreds of suspected Muslim militants to military courts since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. The group, which emerged in Jordan in the early 1970s, seeks to restore the caliphate through military coups across the region. The accused face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
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