Judge Nabil Saleeb announced that Mohamed Morsi and other Brotherhood members have been charged with "inciting the killing and torture of protesters
in front of the Etihadeya (presidential) palace". The incident outside
the presidential palace in December was seen as a turning point in the
fortunes of the former president. Those killed had been
protesting at his decree extending his own powers.
The trial date has been set for 4 November. The former
president has been held at a secret location since he was deposed.
In another move against the organisation, the ministry of
social solidarity officially dissolved the Muslim Brotherhood as a
non-profit organisation and ordered all of its funds and
assets be put under the control of the military-appointed government.
The moves underline that the authorities currently in power
have no intention of heeding the advice of others that they should seek
reconciliation with the Brotherhood: this hardline approach risks
storing up problems for the future.
The armed forces have suffered their own casualties in the past
week, mainly in Sinai, at the hands of jihadist extremists. The
authorities are trying to conflate the Islamists in the Sinai with the
Muslim Brotherhood in the popular imagination although the two Islamist
groups are ideologically very different. Six soldiers were
killed in an attack by gunmen on an army patrol near Ismailia on the Suez Canal; two were killed outside the security headquarters at Al
Tour, regional capital of South Sinai; and four were killed by a car
bomb in Al Arish in north Sinai.
An RPG was also fired at the satellite ground station used by
Nilesat.
For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics &
Security.
© 2013 Menas Associates
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