Historic hearing for Ezzat and his colleagues

The arguments against Dr. Mahmoud Ezzat and his companions before the Heliopolis Court of Misdemeanors which lasted for more than 3 hours indicated that charges against the defendants were complete fabrications by the repressive regime against the Muslim Brotherhood. The SS Investigation’s records relied upon by the prosecution lacked sufficient incriminating evidence.

Counselor Mahmoud Khudairi, former Vice-President of the Court of Cessation, initiated the appeal for the defense emphasizing that the investigation transcripts used by the prosecution was merely lip service.  Some of the accusations made against Dr. Essam Al-Arian, included his public demands in a conference to destroy the iron wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s borders. He noted that these demands were typical demands asked daily by anyone who had any compassion toward his Muslim brother.

Khudairi said, addressing the President of the Court directly, “they are elite nationalists, and Egypt’s finest minds and are a clear model of moderation.  If we wish to see an end to terrorism, the ruling regime must grant these honorable men the opportunity to eliminate terrorism by helping them send the moderate message of Islam.

Dr. Mahmoud Al-Sakka, Professor of International Law and a member of the supreme body of the Liberal Wafd Party, continued the argument, expressing his deep grief and sorrow to see a fine faction of university professors, medical doctors and engineers with a noble reputation in the professional circles handcuffed, stressing to the President of the Court ” Unfortunately, Egypt is sold cheaply to those who will buy.”

Al-Sakka demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the detainees   where he stressed in his speech before the court saying, “Undertake the trustee’s responsibilities, you are Egypt’s judges and guardians of justice,” stressing that Article 40 of the Constitution annulled the laws relied upon by the prosecution’s decision to continue their internment, including Articles 134 and 135 of the Penal Code and Article 206 of the Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure.

 Muhammad Al-Damati,  emphasized that   representatives of  the national political trends  and  genuine manifestation of the Egyptian’s conscience rallied together  with these honorable men who were  arrested in violation to Islam and the international law adding  “It should be those who arrested them that should be  placed in the dock”.

Al-Damati stressed that Egypt is living a real disaster with elements that are in fact ravaging national security and taking over people’s money and its destiny living and roaming free while honorable men are unjustly thrown behind bars.

The Islamist Lawyer Montaser Al-Zayat said “The defense team of Ezzat and his colleagues has come to express solidarity and support for these intellectual minds ascertaining that the case lacks the simplest necessities of legitimacy, illustrating the hostility of the ruling regime towards the Brotherhood masterminded by the security services.

The President of the court called for the session to be adjourned after MP Saad Abboud declared that “those who held them for trial were the ones who deserved to stand trial and imprisoned rather than the honorable and innocent men”. 
  
“The regime that fears the opposition and suppresses its opponent does not deserve to exist and must leave it to its loyal sons, he added

Mamdouh Ismail, the Islamic groups‘ lawyer, launched a fierce attack against the state security’s investigation minutes in which top Muslim Brotherhood leaders were accused of planning violence, emphasizing it is well known to all that the Brotherhood has neither adopted violence nor armed opposition since its inception. Furthermore, the movement has not caused turmoil over the decades

Dr. Ahmed Abu Baraka, a member of the Brotherhood parliamentary bloc, has focused on the contradictions and inconsistencies in the SSI records undermining its illogical construction, explaining that investigations claimed “the defendants formed a secret organization.” and later reported that “The organization promotes its ideas through seminars and conferences!

Abu Baraka called to end the charge of joining a banned group founded on a basis other than the provisions of the Constitution, pointing out that a large number of the Brotherhood members had already been brought to the prosecution with similar accusations, released without any collateral and cases have been shelved without reaching trial.

Lawyer Sayyed Jadallah, stated those minutes of investigation was a replica of other notes prepared by the same officer Major Hossam Riad. The prosecution released all the defendants therein including Mossad Qutb, one of the detainees still in custody in the same case, asking the court not to participate in this farce because of the accessibility of a secure release.