The defendants faced a number of major charges, including attempting a military coup, terrorism and joining the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as attempting to forcibly occupy public institutions.In the absence of any official or published information about the investigations, it is not possible to confirm or deny the accuracy of the charges leveled against the defendants. The confirmation or the denial of the charges is also made impossible given the refusal of lawyers to comment on the evidence presented by the military prosecution and Military Intelligence against their clients, in the hope that the sentences may later be reduced.
Relatives of the defendants say that those who were tried in absentia received sentences of life imprisonment. Of those that were present in court, four defendants also received a life sentence, with 10 receiving 15 years imprisonment and the remaining seven sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Mada Masr has conducted interviews with relatives of several defendants about the conditions in which their relatives were arrested and their treatment in detention (they spoke on condition of anonymity and nondisclosure of the nature of their relation to the defendants). Together with the indictment sheet, Mada Masr has uncovered some of the case details, which have received no media attention, save for some Brotherhood-affiliated news outlets and a short BBC Arabic story citing “military sources” on Aug. 16, 2015, the day the verdict was issued.
Generals and colonels
The Armed Forces spokesperson could not be reached by for comment on the issue, despite repeated attempts. Neither the Ministry of Defense nor its Military Justice Authority has issued any statements regarding the case.
According to the indictment order in case number 3/2015 by the military public prosecutor, four of the defendants were retired officers who were sentenced in absentia, given that they fled the country. One of them was a colonel. The remaining 22 defendants included two retired army officers, one of them a brigadier general, and 20 who were still serving in the Armed Forces at the time of arrest, including a brigadier general and two colonels.
One of the defendants was Major Momen Mohamed Saeed Abdel Aty, brother of General Ragai Saeed, former deputy commander of the Central Military Zone. Abdel Aty’s name first appeared in the summer of 2013, when he was in charge of securing the Mohandiseen neighborhood west of Cairo. He appeared in a YouTube video reprimanding the police for firing tear gas at a demonstration supporting ousted President Mohamed Morsi on Aug. 30, 2013. Sources told Mada Masr that Sad had retired a few weeks after officers accused in the case were arrested, though that information could not be independently verified.
