[This is a collection of news updates on Egypt compiled from multiple sources by the editors.]
Nour Party to Participate in Amending Constitution
The Salafi-led Nour Party will push for the inclusion of five of its members in the fifty-person committee tasked with amending the constitution, officially announcing its participation in the process, Al-Ahram reported.
Abdullah Badran, a member of the party’s supreme council, reiterated that the party is adamant on keeping articles 2 and 219, which explains the principles of Sharia, as is.
In statements to Al-Ahram, Badran said that although the party has reservations, it has decided to participate in the process, hoping that the sessions in which the committee drafts the amendments are public.
The party is expected to issue a statement detailing its stance towards participating in the process, as well as naming its nominees for the committee.
A ten-person committee is scheduled to submit its final amendments to the draft constitution to interim President Adly Mansour on Sunday, after which the document will be referred to the fifty-person committee, as per Article 29 of the Constitutional Declaration issued by Adly last month.
The broader committee of fifty people is expected to represent the diversity of society, including the various political parties, workers and farmers, syndicate members, national councils, and representatives from Al-Azhar, the Church, the Armed Forces, and the police.
This committee will approve the amendments within two months, then present them to the president, who will in turn put them up for referendum within a maximum of thirty days.
Some observers have criticized the constitutional stipulation that concerns the two committees, saying that amendments should go through a larger group of political representatives first and be fine-tuned later by judicial figures, rather than the other way around.
If all goes according to schedule, Egypt is slated to hit the polls to ratify a new constitution in November.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]
Mubarak Trial Postponed to 14 September
The Cairo Criminal Court, headed by Judge Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidy, decided Sunday to postpone the trial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, in which he is accused of ordering the killing of protesters during the eighteen-day popular uprising in 2011, to 14 September.
The case also involves charges of squandering public money through the Israel gas-exporting deal and destroying relevant documents related to the killings.
Mubarak's two sons, Gamal and Alaa, fugitive businessman Hussien Salem, and former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six of his assistants are also on trial in the same case.
Farid al-Deeb, defense lawyer for the former president, objected to the court's decision to combine the two cases— the protesters' killing and the squandering of public wealth— claiming that as a result Alaa and Gamal are falsely incriminated in the former.
The court had approved the formation a of tripartite committee composed of two senior armed forces officers and a forensic doctor to review the evidence of ammunitions and weapons used in the case of the demonstrators' killings.
Last year, Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for failing to prevent the killing of more than 800 protesters. Later, a court accepted his appeal for retrial.
General Prosecutor Hesham Barakat ordered the release of Mubarak last week, as he has served the maximum amount of pre-trial detention permitted in the case.
Mubarak will remain under house arrest as per a decision by Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi in his capacity as deputy military commander under the rules of the Emergency Law currently in place.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]
Badie, Shater Trial Adjourned to 29 October
The trial of Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, his deputy Khairat al-Shater, and four other Brotherhood leaders was adjourned on Sunday to 29 October, state run news site Egynews reported.
The Cairo Criminal Court adjourned the trial because the defendants were not present due to security concerns, the site said.
The six Brotherhood leaders are accused of murder and inciting the killing of protesters in front of the group’s headquarters in Moqattam on 30 June.
Badie, Shater, and Mohamed Rashad Bayoumi, another Brotherhood leader, are accused of conspiring with and inciting the three other defendants and other unidentified assailants to kill protesters. They are also charged with possession of explosives, rifles, and other weapons.
The general prosecution had previously announced that there is enough evidence to implicate the defendants in the murder of peaceful protesters in front of the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters.
On 30 June, there were mass protests against the rule of then President Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, as called for by the Tamarod (rebel) petition campaign. This led to clashes outside the Brotherhood's headquarters, during which eight people were killed.
Shater was arrested on 2 July, and Badie was arrested on 20 August.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]
Pro-Brotherhood Preacher Hegazy Charged With Attempted Murder
The detained Islamist preacher Safwat Hegazy is slapped with fifteen-day detention pending investigation.
Egyptian prosecution charged on Saturday detained Islamist preacher and Muslim Brotherhood loyalist Safwat Hegazy with attempted murder and inciting violence at two Cairo sit-ins.
Hegazy faces several charges, including attempted murder and incitement of violence against opponents of deposed president Mohamed Morsi amid pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo's Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square and Giza’s Al-Nahda Square.
He was arrested in the vicinity of Siwa town, in Egypt’s western desert, near the borders with Libya, on Wednesday.
On Saturday, prosecutors also released fresh orders to detain Hegazy for fifteen days pending investigations.
Sources from the prosecution told Ahram Online that prosecutors have questioned Hegazy for inciting violence for comments he made last December.
His statements were widely interpreted as a call on Morsi supporters to confront demonstrating opponents in December 2012 in front of the presidential palace in Cairo. At least ten were killed on 5 December 2012 amid deadly clashes between pro and anti-Morsi groups.
Hegazy was also questioned for inciting Morsi supporters to march on the Republican Guards headquarters in Cairo–where the army allegedly detained Morsi–on 8 July. Over fifty Brotherhood supporters were killed and dozens injured when the armed forces stormed the protest.
Hegazy has been one of the prominent supporters of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. He was reportedly present at the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in, where he made highly controversial statements about the Brotherhood's opponents.
Following the violent dispersal of the pro-Morsi sit-ins on 14 August, security forces have carried out mass arrests of members and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. The government has repeatedly accused Islamists of committing "terrorist acts" against their opponents.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online]
Egypt Prosecutors Extend Detention of Prominent Islamists
Prosecutors extend detention of Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail, Helmy El-Gazzar, Mohamed Omda and other senior Islamist figures on charges of inciting violence.
The detention of Salafist figure Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail, leading Muslim Brotherhood member Helmy El-Gazzar, former MP Mohamed Omda, Brotherhood lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud and Wasat Party head Abu El-Ela Madi has been extended for another fifteen days by prosecutors in Giza.
The detained face charges of inciting violence.
Security forces have embarked on a wave of arrests targeting Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members, as well as other Islamist political figures, since the crackdown on 14 August against sit-ins demanding the reinstatement of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online]
Beltagy’s Son Arrested in Beni Suef
Ammar al-Beltagy, son of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Beltagy, was arrested Sunday in Beni Suef with three other sons of the group’s leaders, state-run Al-Ahram reported.
A source from the Ministry of Interior said that security forces arrested Beltagy, Tarek Mostafa Abdel Aziz, Jalal Younis, and Mohamed Hussein Abdel Azim in the latter’s house.
The source said the second detainee is the grandson of the Brotherhood's Beni Suef secretary, and that the third detainee's father is the owner of one of the biggest supermarkets in Beni Suef and a financier for the group's activities in the governorate.
He added that Essam Ibrahim, a doctor who belongs to the Brotherhood, was also arrested.
The source said that all the suspects were arrested upon the orders of the general prosecution and that all legal measures were taken once they were brought in.
Many Brotherhood leaders and sympathizers have been arrested since President Mohamed Morsi's ouster on 3 July and the forcible dispersal of the two sit-ins supporting him on 14 August. In an interview on 20 August, the head of General Authority of Cairo Investigations said the authority had all but confirmed information on the location of most leaders of the group, who fled during the dispersal of the sit-ins.
Mohamed al-Beltagy's seventeen-year-old daughter Asmaa was killed during the dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]