Egypt’s Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat has referred the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 50 other leading members of the group to a criminal court in a new case on charges of confronting authorities during the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in last August and for forming an operation room to incite disorder and destruction of property.
The defendants are accused of inciting attacks on police stations, state institutions, state properties and churches with the aim of "bringing down the state and forming an alternative government,” according to a document referred by the prosecution.
On 14 August police forcefully dispersed a sit-in by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, leaving hundreds killed. Dozens of policemen were also killed.
Badie is standing trial in other cases. Along with several prominent Brotherhood figures, he is facing charges of inciting the murder of protesters at the group’s headquarters in the Cairo district of Moqattam in June 2013.
He is also accused of blocking and inciting the blockage of a highway in the Qalioubiya governorate last July. Two people were killed and 30 injured in a firefight with police attempting to disperse them.
The Muslim Brotherhood leader, who was arrested on 20 August, is currently being held in Tora prison in southern Cairo.
