Cassation court to reach verdict in challenges to rulings in spy case Nov. 22

The Cassation Court has set for November 22 the ruling session in appeals filed by 22 Muslim Brotherhood members, challenging previous sentences, topped by the death penalty, on charges of spying for foreign organizations and parties. 

All 22, with other co-defendants, had also been convicted of collaborating with Jihadist organizations inside and outside Egypt to carry out terrorist attacks on Egyptian soil. 

The prosecution Tuesday recommended a retrial of the defendants.

The defense team representing the defendants argued that former president Mohamed Morsi should not be tried before a criminal court because "he still maintains his presidential status that is not revoked by any constitutional measure or law."

In June 2015, Cairo Criminal Court had sentenced Khairat el Shater, Mohamed el Beltagi and Ahmed Abdel Aati to death. Thirteen fugitives had received the same sentence. 

It had also sentenced Morsi and 16 other defendants to life in prison.

Two other defendants had been landed a seven-year term each. 

An investigation conducted by the state security prosecution had revealed that the international MB organization had carried out terrorist acts inside Egypt with the aim to create chaos. The plot had been woven in collaboration with foreign organizations namely: Hamas, the military arm of the international MB organization, and Hezbollah, a close ally of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in addition to a number of takfiri groups that smuggled weapons through the western border of Egypt.

Elements of the Muslim Brotherhood had also been able to sneak into the Gaza Strip through secret tunnels with the help of Hamas in order to receive military training by Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, according to the investigation. 

The probe had also shown that the defendants had united with other takfiri elements in Sinai to practice what they had learned in Gaza.

Other MB members had received courses abroad on how to influence public opinion and spread rumors to serve the agenda of the international organization, the probe had revealed. 

They had also been trained to open communication channels with the West through Qatar and Turkey, according to the investigation. 

Prosecutors had made it clear that the international MB organization had received financial support from foreign countries to create chaos in Egypt. According to them, the plot dated back to 2005 and was completed in 2011 in the wake of the January 25 Revolution.

MB elements had made use of the events that started more than six years ago, attacking police troops and citizens in different parts of the country with the aim to create chaos and harm Egypt's national security, according to the probe.

The investigation had also revealed that the defendants had detected security facilities in North Sinai with the aim to control them, had Morsi not been named winner of the presidential election. 

It had also pointed that defendants Essam el Haddad, Ahmed Abdel Aati, Mohamed Refaa el Tahtawi, Assad Shiha and Mohie Hamed had, during their work at the presidency, leaked classified documents about the national security authority that should have been referred to then-president Morsi. The documents had been leaked to leaders of the international organization, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hamas and Hezbollah as a reward for conducting terrorist attacks and helping the MB in Egypt to assume power, according to the probe. 

The investigation had also revealed that some of the classified reports had been leaked through the presidency email with the knowledge of then president Morsi.

Source: MENA