Egypt delays Muslim Brotherhood leaders’ trial

Chiefs face charges of inciting violence while former president Hosni Mubarak goes to court over protester deaths in 2011

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 85, is escorted by medical and security personnel into an ambulance to be taken by helicopter ambulance from to court, Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013. (photo credit:AP/Amr Nabil)
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 85, is escorted by medical and security personnel into an ambulance to be taken by helicopter ambulance from to court, Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013. (photo credit:AP/Amr Nabil)

A Cairo court delayed until October hearings against Muslim Brotherhood leaders accused in connection with the killing of protesters, Egyptian judicial officials said Sunday.

A separate hearing for deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in an unrelated case went ahead as planned.

The three Brotherhood officials, including the Islamist group’s leader Mohammed Badie, were not present at Sunday’s session for security reasons. The next session will be October 29.

Badie and his two deputies, Khairat el-Shater and Rashad Bayoumy, are accused of incitement to violence during a July 30 anti-Brotherhood protest outside the organization’s headquarters in Cairo that ended with nine people dead and 91 injured.

Egypt launched a massive crackdown on the Islamist movement after moving to break up two sit-ins in Cairo on August 14, triggering the worst bout of violence since the country’s 2011 uprising against Mubarak.

Officials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Separately, Mubarak, 85, appeared before another court for a session of his retrial on charges of killing protesters during the 2011 uprising that eventually led to his resignation.

At a courtroom in eastern Cairo, Mubarak looked relaxed in dark sunglasses and a white jumpsuit in his first court appearance since he was released from prison last week and transferred to a military hospital. The ex-president, whose lawyer has claimed has been on the verge of death, sat in a wheelchair next to his two sons who are being tried in a separate corruption-related case.

More than 1,000 people have died in violent protests over the last six weeks since an army coup ousted former president Mohammad Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party from power.

The army has said it intended to revise a constitution that was drawn up last year under Morsi and follow up with parliamentary and presidential elections.

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