(AFP File Photo)
The latest charges against ousted president Mohamed Morsi are part of a “bid to discredit” him, said the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday.
“Despite calls by the European Union and the African Union as well as many other countries for the release of President Morsi and his co-defendants, the military [has] chosen to further violate human rights by continuing to illegally hold these men as political prisoners,” said the group in a press statement issued from its London office.
A spokesman for the Brotherhood accused the “junta’s judges” of continuing to “fabricate risible allegations against the democratically elected president and a number of leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
The Muslim Brotherhood urged governments and human rights organisations “to demand the immediate release” of Morsi and other political prisoners.
The new charges were announced by the office of the Prosecutor General on Wednesday in a statement titled “the biggest case of espionage in the history of Egypt” and alleged that Brotherhood leadership of taking part in a “plot” organised by a number of foreign parties including the Gaza-based Islamic resistance movement of Hamas, the Lebanese Shi’a militant group and political party, and foreign Islamic groups to create “violence inside Egypt to create a state of ultimate chaos.”
Those facing charges in the case include 37 senior Broterhood members and former Morsi aides according to the press release, including Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie, his deputy Khairat El-Shater, Mahmoud Ezzat, Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party Saad Al-Katatny, his deputy Essam El-Erian, and former presidential advisor for foreign affairs Essam El-Haddad.
Osama, Morsi’s son, also released a statement calling the charges “null and void” saying “such allegations should be lodged against those who had ousted the president in July.”
