CAIRO, Egypt – The trial of Al Jazeera journalists, accused of joining or supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, resumed on March 3 in a case that has underscored the country’s authoritarian trajectory since the military coup that ousted President Mohammad Morsi, an Islamist backed by the Brotherhood, in July 2013.
The trial has heightened tensions between Qatar, where Al-Jazeera is based, and Egypt’s powerful military, which distrusts Doha because its support of the Brotherhood and its condemnation of the coup that toppled Morsi’s Islauthoritarian trajectory since the military coup that ousted President Mohammad Morsi, an Islamist backed by the Brotherhood, in July 2013. The trial has heightened tensions between Qatar, where Al-Jazeera is based, and Egypt’s powerful military, which distrusts Doha because its support of the Brotherhood and its condemnation of the coup that toppled Morsi’s amist government.
On March 5, six of the accused appeared in court wearing white prison uniforms, with some of the defendants complaining of being subjected to poor prison conditions and abuse. Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, Al Jazeera’s Canadian-Egyptian Cairo bureau chief, told the judge that his right shoulder had been broken for ten weeks and that he was forced to sleep on the floor of his prison cell. A total of 20 people are being tried in the case, including 16 Egyptians who are charged with belonging to a terrorist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, and with “harming national unity.”
The Brotherhood was designated as a terrorist group by Egypt’s military-backed government in December, a month after a court ruling ordered the Islamist groups’ assets seized. Four foreign defendants who have fled Egypt are being tried in absentia and are accused of “collaborating with the Egyptians by providing them with money, equipment, information” and “airing false news.” The prosecution alleges that all of the defendants work for Al Jazeera, but the Qatar-based Arabic language network says that only nine of the accused are its employees. In all, 12 of the defendants are being tried in absentia. Al Jazeera provided generally favorable coverage of Morsi and his Brotherhood-backed government and was critical of the coup that ousted the Islamist president.
While Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Gulf kingdoms suspicious of the Brotherhood and its brand of political Islam supported the coup that overthrew Morsi, Qatar, a longtime supporter of Islamist groups in the region, condemned Morsi’s removal from office. Egypt has taken a sharp turn towards authoritarianism since the July 3, 2013, popularly-backed coup that toppled Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president.
In January, Egyptian voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution that formally enshrines many of the powers and privileges that Egypt’s military has long enjoyed. The new charter, which was drafted by a constituent assembly whose composition the military helped to shape, stipulates that the defense minister must be an active member of the armed forces and creates a legal framework for trying civilians in military courts. The document also grants the armed forces, already the country’s most powerful institution, the authority to appoint the defense minister for eight years after the charter is ratified.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s military backed government has unleashed a brutal crackdown targeting the Brotherhood, which dominated politics during the period of military rule after longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. In the 16 months of military rule after Mubarak was toppled, the Islamist group won the presidency as well as control of both the upper and lower houses of country’s parliament, making it the most powerful political force in post-Mubarak Egypt.
In September 2013, an Egyptian court banned the Brotherhood and, “its non-governmental organization and all the activities that it participates in and any organization derived from it.” A ruling by a separate court in November 2013 upheld the September 2013 decision outlawing the Brotherhood and also ordered the Islamist groups’ assets seized. In December, Egypt’s government designated the Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist movement founded in Egypt in 1928, as a terrorist organization.
Sources: Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera Inside Story, BBC, BBC Middle East, BBC News
Photo: Daily News Egypt