Cairo - A military tribunal Sunday cleared 40 Muslim
Brotherhood leaders including the group's third-in-command, Khairat
al-Shater, of charges of terrorism and money laundering Sunday.
The high-profile Muslim Brothers are civilians but are being tried
in a military court on charges of money laundering, belonging to and
financing a banned group 'that uses terrorism to achieve its ends,'
disrupting public peace and endangering civil liberties.
On Sunday, two of the charges were dropped while the next court
session was postponed to December 23. The Brotherhood still face the
charge of belonging to a banned group.
The Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative movement that has Islam is
the Solution as its political motto, is always at loggerheads with
the Egyptian ruling party. The group, popular among the grassroots,
has succeeded in grasping 88 seats in parliament through fielding
candidates as 'independents.'
Although illegal, the group forms the strongest opposition to the
Egyptian government and is active across several provinces.
Meanwhile, only 34 defendants and their attorneys were present at
the Supreme Military Court in Heikstep, several kilometres north-
east of Cairo, where the trial is being held. The rest of the
defendants were being tried in absentia.
The case of the top Brotherhood leaders was often a source of
concern for international rights groups and Egyptian lawyers who
contested the legality of prosecuting civilians in military courts.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
Your Talkback on this Story