The Giza Criminal Court decided on Monday to suspend the trial of 379 defendants in the case known as “Al-Nahda sit-in dispersal” until the court rules a final verdict in the dissolution of the case’s judges’ panel.
The plaintiff, who filed the demand to dissolve the panel, is the lawyer of one of the defendants in the case. One of the judges in the case, Moataz Khafagy, had already stepped down in December because a defendant was also accused of attempting to assassinate Khafagy. However, the three other judges in the panel are still presiding over the trial.
The defendants are being tried on charges of intended murder, joining an outlawed group, and hindering the implementation of the Constitution, among other charges. Although demands for the dissolution of the judging panel increased across different cases, none of them have been accepted.
The Al-Nahda sit-in was held in opposition to the ouster of the first democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi by the armed forces in 2013. Interim president Adly Mansour had requested that the protesters disperse the 47-day sit-in, promising them that they would not be pursued.
