Deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi appeared at a trial yesterday defiant and angry at the court.
The court had installed a soundproof cage for Morsi to stay inside during the hearing in response to the first time Morsi appeared in court and disrupted the proceedings by continually yelling at the judge and prosecutors.
The new soundproof cage was so successful at keeping order in the court that Egyptian state television declared it “the hero of today’s trial.”
Morsi was also ordered to wear regular prison apparel instead of the dark suit that he wore in the first trial.
Morsi reportedly sat angrily in his cube until his microphone was turned on and then he did nothing but question the judge.
“I am the president of this republic,” Morsi said, “and I’ve been here since 7 in the morning sitting in this dump.”
Other members of the Brotherhood on trial at the same time were placed in a separate glass cage. Every time their microphones were turned on, all they did was chant anti-military messages.
Ariel Sharon was remembered as a great warrior who was also fiercely devoted to his family.
A state memorial service was held Monday attended by multiple foreign dignitaries. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and others attended the ceremony. The Arab world even had a representative as Egypt sent a diplomat to the ceremony.
Vice President Biden delivered a personal address about his decades-long friendship with Sharon and said his passing felt like a “death in the family.” Biden shared stories about how he learned Sharon earned his nickname “The Bulldozer” after he would bring out maps and repeatedly make the same points to hammer home his passion for his country.
He defended this land like a lion and he taught its children to swing a scythe,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said his eulogy. “He was a military legend in his lifetime and then turned his gaze to the day Israel would dwell in safety, when our children would return to our borders and peace would grace the Promised Land.”
Sharon was buried on his farm in southern Israel.
The U.S. government has announced they are seeking an al-Qaeda terrorist in connection with the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack.
Muhammed Jamal was arrested last fall in Egypt and imprisoned by the Egyptian government for terrorist activity but has since disappeared. Various intelligence reports say he is still in Egypt while others place him inside Yemen.
Four Americans were killed in the September 11, 2012 attack on the Benghazi embassy.
The release from the government about the hunt for an Al Qaeda terrorist in the attack is seen as a direct rebuke of a New York Times story that said al Qaeda had no connection to the terrorist attack. The newspaper had been receiving criticism from elected officials in both political parties saying that intelligence confirmed the involvement of al Qaeda.
Leaders within Egypt’s security forces are reportedly meeting in private over concerns that the Islamic militancy growing under the Muslim Brotherhood could be a major disruption in moving the country forward.
The concern has been heightened by a bus bombing in Cairo and homicide car bombing at a police headquarters in Mansoura that killed 16 people.
“If this battlefront for militants becomes Cairo and urban centers, then the prospect for the security situation and the human toll becomes pretty grim,” Michael Hanna, an Egypt expert at the New York-based Century Foundation, told the Wall Street Journal.
While the government did not publicly blame anyone for the Thursday attack on the Cairo bus, the unspoken allegation ties it to the Muslim Brotherhood who was designated a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government on Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egypt’s foreign minister to express his concern about the Muslim Brotherhood being designated a terrorist group.
After months of suggesting that the Muslim Brotherhood was behind terrorist attacks and bombings, the Egyptian government made it official on Wednesday.
The announcement of the declaration that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization means that any Egyptian who is associated in any way with the group can be immediately arrested and jailed. All activities related to the group, including providing funding to any part of the organization, is criminal.
Hossam Eissa, Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education, said the action by the Cabinet comes after Tuesday’s deadly terror attack on a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city that killed 16 and wounded 100. The Muslim Brotherhood denied participation in the attack and referred to an al-Qaeda inspired group that tried to claim responsibility.
“Egypt was horrified from north to south by the hideous crime committed by the Muslim Brotherhood group,” Eissa told reporters. “This was in context of dangerous escalation to violence against Egypt and Egyptians, a clear declaration by the Muslim Brotherhood group that it still knows nothing but violence. It’s not possible for Egypt the state nor Egypt the people to submit to the Muslim Brotherhood terrorism.”
The head of the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, said the decision is only worth the paper that it is printed on and will have no impact on their organization.
The declaration allows police and military troops to increase activity against Brotherhood groups including entering buildings housing Brotherhood members without a warrant.
Pope Francis made a statement Thursday that the Catholic Church would not accept a Middle East that is devoid of Christians.
The Pope told reporters after a meeting with patriarchs in Syria, Iran and Iraq the church would not resign itself to a Christian-free Middle East. The Pope called for “the universal right to lead a dignified life and freely practice one’s own faith to be respected.”
“Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other areas of the Holy Land sometimes overflow with tears,” The Pope said.
The number of Christians in the Middle East continues to dwindle through oppression and civil war. Christians are just 10% of the Egyptian population, 5% in Syria, 2% in Iraq and 1.2% in Palestinian territories.
The Vatican said the population of Christians in the region has shrunk more than half since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The trial of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi began in Egypt with court disruptions, tension and a defiant defendant.
Morsi and 14 senior members of the outlawed Islamist Muslim Brotherhood were brought into the court to be formally charged with incitement of violence and murder. All defendants are facing the death penalty.
Morsi defied the judge by wearing a blue suit into court instead of the mandated prison clothes. He also challenged the court’s authority saying that he was the legitimate president of the country and those who removed him should be the ones on trial.
Presiding judge Ahmed Sabry Youssef adjourned the hearing because the defendants refused to stop chanting. He gave the defense lawyers until January 8th to review documents from the case.
The hearing was the first public appearance of Morsi since his removal from power on July 3rd.
Egyptian authorities Wednesday captured a fugitive Muslim Brotherhood leader.
Police arrested Essam al-Erian, vice chairman of the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, at an apartment in the New Cairo area.
The arrest is the latest move by the government to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist extremism in Egypt. Officials plan to put Erian on trial next week beside former President Mohammed Morsi.
“You can’t escape your destiny,” Erian said to reporters when he was arrested. “I am confident I will be out of prison after putting an end to the coup.”
The trial of Morsi and his compatriots is scheduled to begin on November 4th but Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood announced they reject the authority of the courts. Several judges have already stepped down from Brotherhood trials claiming “reasons of conscience.”
Police broke up a student protest supporting ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi.
The interior ministry told the BBC they were responding to a request from university authorities for help in containing the protest. The pro-Morsi students had been holding protests for weeks.
The move against the students came hours after the arrest of Essam al-Erian, the vice chairman of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.
The students reportedly invaded the university’s offices and ransacked them before the police arrived at the campus. Photos on social media showed graffiti and damage to the university’s offices.
Masked gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire outside a church in a Cairo suburb on Sunday killing at least three people including an 8 year old child.
The terrorists reportedly shot randomly at the guests exiting the church and did not appear to be attempting to discern between Christians and other wedding guests.
A Coptic priest at the wedding told Reuters that he was inside the church when the gunfire began but rushed outside to find a dead man, a dead woman and many wounded wedding guests laying around the front of the church building.
Coptic Christians make up around ten percent of Egypt’s population and had been living in peace with the majority Muslims in the country for years. However, the Muslim Brotherhood told supporters that the Christians were behind the removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on July 3rd and called for retaliation.
Analysts in the region say the violence against Christians in Egypt since the removal of Morsi and the government disbanding of Muslim Brotherhood protest camps on August 14th is unprecedented.
