Egypt 'politicising the army'

2007-10-08 08:45

Cairo - Jailed leaders of Egypt's main Islamic opposition group have for the first time accused the government of politicising the army by using military tribunals to try its opponents, according to a statement.

The members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who were all on trial in a military court on charges of money laundering and supporting terrorism, said that the army should be outside the political rivalry of the government and its opponents calling for reform.

"The armed forces belong to the Egyptian people and not to the ruling party. This party has no right to jeopardise the great stature of the armed forces by making them a part of political rivalries or an instrument to crackdown on its opponents," said the statement.

'This is a dangerous game'

The statement and its accusations of President Hosni Mubarak using the army for political purposes came at a particularly sensitive time for Egypt as speculation was rife about the health of the 79-year-old leader and whether his son would succeed him.

While all of Egypt's presidents since a 1952 military coup toppled the monarchy had hailed from the military, the institution, which was the largest military in the Arab world with half a million men, was still seen as neutral and held in high esteem.

Khalil el-Anani, a political analyst at Cairo's International Politics Quarterly, believed the Brotherhood was trying to force a wedge between the army and the government at a particularly sensitive time.

He said: "This is a dangerous game to try and incite the army, but it won't work", maintaining that the military was firmly behind the government.

Egypt's policy condemned

Egypt began using military tribunals to try Islamist insurgents fighting to overthrow the government in the early 1990s because civil courts would not always convict suspects.

Starting in 1995, they began sending members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who had eschewed violence.

Forty members of the organisation were on trial in front of such a tribunal, despite an earlier ruling by a civilian court that they should be tried by the civil legal system.

The trial was part of an ongoing government crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood, whose members held almost 20% of the seats in the country's parliament and posed the most significant challenge to Mubarak's regime.

Human rights groups in Egypt and abroad had repeatedly condemned Egypt's policy of trying civilians before military courts, which usually issued swift and harsh verdicts with no possibility of appeal.

The next hearing of the trial would be October 09.

- AP