Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

The Muslim Brotherhood defense team representing Engineer Khairat al-Shater, Deputy Chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, and four MB leaders who were convicted in the Military Court case in 2008 described the exclusions of July’s release as blatant evidence that the regime is discriminatory against the political detainees ignoring and violating the rights and freedoms of honorable citizens.

In its statement the defense accused the regime with applying double standards regarding the presidential pardon on prisoners, as it excluded prisoners of conscience who were convicted in political cases while only releasing prisoners serving criminal sentences. It added that while  honorable men were being tried before military courts and denied  rights to defense or appeal, others with offensive  crimes of conspiracy, corruption and guilty of killing thousands of citizens were being tried before a conventional judiciary and  guaranteed the right to defense.

The defense team condemned this decision stressing that the political detainees had spent half their sentences and currently suffer from deteriorating health which requires their immediate release. The lawyers highlighted that no evidence was brought forward against them and in fact there had been numerous court acquittals issued by Civilian court clearing them of all the charges leveled against them.

The statement stressed that the exclusion from the presidential pardon, disrespect to the release orders and the prevention of their families from having access to their money are completely unjustified. It explained that their exclusion comes in violation to the Egyptian law and constitution as well as international covenants on human rights where in the Egyptian Constitution, Article 40 stresses on the principle of equality and Article 42 stresses on the importance of protecting the dignity of humans.

The defense team called on President Mubarak to review the presidential pardon decree in order to guarantee the immediate release of the reformers and called for the release of all political detainees, particularly the prisoners of conscience who were tried in exceptional military courts.