Military Court Convicts 54 Members Of Egypt’s Largest Islamic Group

The government dealt a decisive blow to Egypt’s largest Islamic group Thursday, putting Muslim Brotherhood members behind bars for the first time in 30 years.

Fifty-four followers were sentenced by a military court to three to five years in prison for belonging to an outlawed group and trying to topple the government.

The Brotherhood, an influential group with tens of thousands of supporters across Egypt, accused the government of trying to discredit it before next week’s parliamentary elections.

The group is illegal but has been allowed to operate openly since the 1970s and even compete in elections. Its stated goal is to create an Islamic state through democratic means.

But since January, the government has accused the Brotherhood of ties with Muslim extremists fighting to bring down President Hosni Mubarak and his secular regime.

Dozens of its members have been arrested, including some of its most dynamic, younger members. Some of the defendants sentenced Thursday were doctors, professors and religious leaders.

The trial, which began in September, was sharply criticized by opposition parties and human rights groups because the military court does not allow appeals and tends to hand down quick verdicts and stiff sentences.

“The question is whether the government will allow space for a peaceful fundamentalist movement or whether they are pushing them to be clandestine,” said Virginia Sherry, an associate director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, who attended Thursday’s sentencing.

Five were sentenced to five years at hard labor and 49 to three years in jail, some at hard labor. Twenty-eight others were acquitted. The Brotherhood’s headquarters in downtown Cairo was ordered closed.

“This is a political case. There are no crimes. All the evidence is false,” Salah Abdel-Maqsoud, a journalist who was acquitted.

Police barred 300 relatives and supporters from the courtroom on a military base at Haekstep, 25 miles east of Cairo. The defendants, dressed in white gowns, stood behind a makeshift cage, silent and relaxed as the verdicts were read.

Afterward, Essam el-Iryan, one of the defendants, led the group in orderly chants. No one yelled or showed any anger.

“The Koran is our constitution, the prophet is our leader, holy war is our way, death for the sake of God is our most valued hope,” the men chanted.

They then sang Egypt’s national anthem. Some held up Egyptian flags, others carried the Koran.

The sentences were lower than the 15 years the men could have received for charges including reviving an illegal group, inciting people against the state and trying to overthrow the government.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928, last faced trial in Egypt in 1966, when President Gamal Abdel Nasser accused its members of planning a coup. Three members were executed and 200 were imprisoned.