A Memo to the Prosecutor General Calling for El Shater’s Release

A Memo to the Prosecutor General Calling for El Shater’s Release


The defense panel of the 18 Muslim Brotherhood members (including MB third-in-command Khairat El Shater) who received prison sentences in the military case no 2 for the year 2007, submitted a memo Wednesday to the prosecutor general calling for their immediate release because their jail sentences have no legal grounds.



After the detained MB members were arrested on February 2, 2006, they were acquitted by Southern Cairo Criminal Court, then immediately detained based on the Interior Minister’s decision. When they appealed the decision in front of Cairo Criminal Court, they obtained two consecutive court acquittals. It was at that point that the President Hosni Mubarak ordered them referred to a military tribunal while the prosecutor general issued a decree banning them, their wives, and underage children from using their property.



While that latest decision was being probed in a civil court, the defendants were tried before a military court, which made them file a litigation complaint in front of the Higher Constitutional Court.



According to article 31, law no 48 for the year 1979, the litigation complaint should result in stopping all court procedures until an arbitration is reached.



Although the constitutional court has not arbitrated this conflict yet, the military tribunal issued its ruling on April 15, 2008, sentencing the defendants who filed the complaint from three to seven years in jail.



The ruling was “null and void” according to the Higher Constitutional Court which decided “not to build on any decision whatsoever taken by any of the two conflicting courts.”



Accordingly, the jail sentence is considered a violation of the law and constitution. More importantly, it represents a crime punishable by article 127 of the penal code, “any person who punishes an accused with more than the sentence he received by the law, or a sentence he did not receive, should be punished by imprisonment.”



Abdul Monem Abdul Maqsud, the general coordinator of the defense panel, confirmed that the defendants will wait for a week until the prosecutor general takes a step to release them; otherwise, they will resort to judicial procedures.