Brotherhood defence team challenges verdicts in espionage, jailbreak cases

The defense team of the terrorist group the Muslim Brotherhood challenged on Saturday Cairo criminal court rulings against ex-president Mohamed Morsi and Brotherhood leaderships in espionage and jailbreak cases.

On June 16, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced to death Morsi in the mass prison break case which involved assaulting security and police troops in collaboration with the Palestinian Hamas group and Hezbollah militants during January 25 revolution.

Morsi, supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood group Mohamed Badie, four MB leaders and 93 fugitives were sentenced to death.

The rest of the defendants received terms ranging from life to two-year sentences.

All 129 defendants were also ordered to pay a temporary compensation worth 250 million pounds to the Interior Ministry.

Investigations led by Judge Hassan Samir Qadhi unveiled the defendants in the jail break case plotted the killing of police troops in Abu Zaabal prison, Wadi el Natroun and El Marg and released almost 20,000 prisoners along with kidnapping three border guards and policeman and forcing them to leave for Gaza Strip via tunnels set up by Palestinian militants on the borders between Egypt and Gaza.

As for the espionage case, Cairo Criminal Court on June 16 also sentenced Morsi to life in jail over charges of spying with foreign organizations, unveiling classified information about the state's national security and coordinating with Jihadists inside and outside Egypt to carry out terror attacks in Egypt.

The court also sentenced to death deputy guide of the Muslim Brotherhood organization Khairat el Shater, MB leader Mohammad Beltagui and former head of the presidential office Ahmed Abdel Attei.

Cairo Criminal Court also sentenced to death 13 defendants of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders including deputy guide, Mahmoud Ezzat, former information minister Salah Abdel Maqsoud, Ammar al Bana, Ahmed Ragab Suliman, Hassan Khairat el Shater, Sondos Essam Shalabi, Abu Bakr Mashali, Ahmed Mohammad el Hakim, Redha Fahmy Khalil, Mohammd Osama Aqeed, Hussein Qazaz, Emad eldine Shahin and Farouq Zayat.

According to investigations, the leaked documents include classified information about the Egyptian Armed Forces, their locations and the nature of arming as well as reports issued by the general and military intelligence agencies, the National Security Agency and the Administrative Control Authority and defense secrets.

Former Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem, who now is Al Jazeera network chairman, had attended a meeting in a Doha hotel (Sheraton) with a senior officer of the Qatari intelligence service, Alaa Seblan (a Jordanian correspondent working for Al Jazeera in Cairo) and head of Al Jazeera's news sector Ibrahim Helal, during which they reached an agreement to deliver the confidential documents in return for one million dollars, the State Higher Security Prosecution had said.

The plan was to deliver the information to the Qatari intelligence and be aired on Al Jazeera screens to harm Egyptian national interests, the prosecution added.

With public anger roaring against Morsi before the June 30 revolution, the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood instructed Morsi, his office director Ahmed Abdel Aati and special secretary Amin el Serfi, to send over the confidential files to the Qatari side, it said.

Morsi's secretary Serfi kept the classified files at his daughter's residence, Karima, who handed them over to Asmaa el Khatib (working for MB-run Rasd online news network), who in turn delivered them to Ahmed Ali (a documentary producer) and the Jordanian Seblan.

They converted the files to a soft version with the help of Khaled Hamdi (production director at MB Misr 25 satellite channel) and Ahmed Ismail (lecturer at Misr University for Science & Technology).

The National Security Agency arrested Mohamed Adel, Ahmed Ali, Khaled Hamdi, Ahmed Ismail and Karima el-Serfi, who all confessed in detail about the crimes, it added.