Muslim Brotherhood continues struggle against regime; says it fought the Jews not Egyptians
Egyptian court sentences 155 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to jail terms and gives 54 of them life sentences.
By ARIEL BEN SOLOMONMuslim Brotherhood in court cages(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is not giving up its struggle against the government that ousted its former president Mohamed Morsi, who expressed his confidence that the current regime would fall.Despite the harsh crackdown against the Brotherhood and the banning of the organization, Morsi and its members are still confident in ultimate victory.Morsi’s son Osama said his father called on the rebels to continue their protests and that he is sure that victory is near, adding that not only will he return to office, but that the victory will be total, the Brotherhood website Ikhwanonline reported.Osama said his father passed him a message to relay to the protesters after visiting him on Monday: That he salutes their steadfastness despite the ferocity of the violence committed by state authorities.“Never have we responded to violent attacks against us with violence. We are commanded to spread Allah’s mercy through peaceful means,” Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie said in court on Sun day, reported MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute.“We have fought only against the Jews... yet now we are being accused of conspiring with Hamas against the Egyptian people. This is an absolute lie,” he add ed. Badie is being tried for inciting violence and blocking the Cairo-Alexandria road in July 2013.Meanwhile, an Egyptian court sentenced 155 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to jail terms on Wednesday and gave 54 of them life sentences in a case related to violence in the Nile Delta province of Mansoura last August after Morsi’s ouster, judicial sources said.Other defendants were sentenced to bet ween three to 10 years in jail. The charges included instigating violence and chaos and membership in a banned group. Police fired tear gas at demonstrator s outside the courthouse who were chanting against the verdict.“According to one Brotherhood leader, the Brotherhood wants to appoint an independent committee to investigate security forces’ deadly crackdown on the Brotherhood’s anti-coup protests,” wrote Eric Trager, an expert on Egypt and a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in an article in The New Republic this week. He added that “[army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-] Sisi and many of his colleagues would be convicted of mass murder and put to death” if such a committee would find them guilty. Trager says that despite the fact that the organization is in disarray, its membership still seems to be intent on continuing the struggle.“We will continue to resist the coup until the last drop… Because we tasted freedom and we will not accept to go back and taste slavery again,” a Brotherhood youth in Istanbul told Trager.
Separately, the Egyptian army killed six jihadists in an air strike in Sinai on Tuesday in its ongoing battle in the area, security sources told the Aswat Masriya web site. “The army targeted a hiding place of jihadists with missiles, which left six of them killed and 14 injured,” the sources said.Reuters contributed to this report.
