Qatar’s Moza sought not to document Brotherhood crimes

CAIRO – 28 January 2018: Qatar’s Sheikha Moza bint Nasser demanded that prominent activist Saad Ibrahim not document crimes committed by the Muslim Brotherhood, according to human rights activist Dalia Zeyada.

Zeyada gave her testimonies at the Cairo Criminal Court on Saturday over the so-called “Rabaa sit-in dispersal” case in which the Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 738 other defendants were charged with staging an armed sit-in and deliberately damaging vital state institutions.

“Many attempts were exerted to persuade Brotherhood protesters to end their 40-day sit-in. Helicopters threw pamphlets urging them to end the sit-in,” stated Zeyada who chairs the Ibn Khaldoun Center.

She stressed that she had seen documented torture cases inside the sit-in, and many of the neighboring residents reported smelling unusual and unpleasant smells coming from the sit-in site.

The MB supporters attacked 83 churches and set them on fire in an attempt to drive a wedge between Muslims and Copts and to distract domestic attention away from the sit-in and towards a sectarian sedition, Zeyada added during the hearing.

Eyewitnesses’ testimonies
MB members and supporters conducted a sit-in for more than 40 days in Rabaa and Nahda squares after the overthrow of former President Mohamed Morsi following mass protests on July 3, 2013. The brotherhood members are accused of using firearms during the sit-in to torture and murder citizens accused of spying on them.

The Cairo Criminal Court held a hearing session on Saturday to listen to testimonies of several eyewitnesses about the events that occurred during and after the sit-ins.

The defendants are accused of possessing weapons, blocking roads, violating citizens' rights and vandalizing public property, conducting an armed gathering, disturbing public peace as well as murdering a number of citizens and policemen, in addition to other accusations.

On August 14, 2013, security forces dispersed the Muslim Brotherhood sit-in in Nasr City’s Rabaa Al-Adawiya, along with another sit-in in Giza’s Nahda Square.

LE 50 million ($2.8 million) in damage was caused to the surrounding area as a result of the sit-in.

State intervention to stop the Rabaa sit-in
“The Muslim Brotherhood committed horrific crimes during the Rabaa sit-in; the timing of state intervention to stop it was ideal,” Tharwat al-Kharabawi, the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood said on August 14, 2017, during his on-air interview in the talk show Akher el-Nahar (sunset times) on Al-Nahar TV channel.

“The terrorist group was well aware that the patience of the state would run out, and they would eventually bring it to a close. So, the Brotherhood resorted to collecting bodies in front of the cameras, claiming that they are the victims of the dispersal to seek fake sympathy,” Kharabawi added, “we have all seen with our own eyes that these corpses were actually moving, what a cheap game show!”




The first court session started on December 13, 2015, and resumed again on March 26, 2016. Both sessions were postponed, as the cage placed in the court was not big enough to hold all the defendants.

The defendants in the case included photojournalist Shawkan, along with top Muslim Brotherhood leaders including Mohammed Badie, Safwat Hegazi, Mohammed al-Beltagy, Usama Yassin, Essam Sultan and Bassem Ouda, who face charges related to staging an armed sit-in and deliberately damaging vital state institutions.

Most of the MB leaders are now imprisoned because of their affiliation with violence and terrorism. In December 2013, the whole group was labeled as a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government and other countries all around the world, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Currently, the House of Representatives is discussing the Criminal Procedures Code to ensure limiting obstacles hindering the process of fast litigation. Two cases, including the case of the assassination of former General Prosecutor Hesham Barkat, have been finalized in accordance with recent amendments approved by the Parliament in April. The amendments focused on improving some regulations for concluding terrorism-related cases.

The Rabaa dispersal case and other violence-related cases could see fast litigation following the approval of the new amendments. The Parliament decided on three extraordinary sessions to discuss a full amendment of the law in August with Minister of Justice Mohamed Hossam Abdel-Rahim and General Prosecutor Nabil Sadek in attendance.

Over the past few years, the law has witnessed a total of 20 partial amendments, but has never been fully amended, according to state-run Al Ahram newspaper. In November 2014, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi approved amendments to the law in the absence of the parliament, which resumed its session in 2016. Moreover, a number of articles were previously amended in 2003.