MB Statement : Accusations are unjustified and ludicrous lies
The Brotherhood’s high-ranking leaders detained in Al-Marg Prison under investigation in the case of the alleged "international network of the Muslim Brotherhood" issued a statement, in which they emphasized that they hold prestigious positions. The detainees include university professors, doctors, engineers, businessman, members of syndicates and clubs and teaching staff members. They were surprised by pre-dawn raids launched by the State Security Services on Sunday, June 28, 2009, at their homes, which terrified their families and illegally violating their rights without any authority of the law.
Their privately-owned companies have been stormed, the contents of their businesses, confiscated and sealed off and their employees were displaced by the State Security Investigations. Investigations were conducted with the detained persons at the headquarters of the State Security Prosecution. A set of false accusations were promptly brought against them and the prosecution ordered the detention of all those arrested, without regard to their age or unstable health conditions. Even the distinguished academic and social statuses of those who were arrested didn"t help. The hateful crusade against the Muslim Brotherhood is synchronized with the ferocious media campaign against them in national newspapers, which aspires to tarnish the Muslim Brotherhood’s image without any apparent evidence.
The case of the alleged international network in the framework of the Brotherhood’s statement includes many irregularities and highlights the fact that the accusations against them are ludicrous lies. The financing of terrorism and money-laundering are a few of those charges against them. Lies were merely recorded in the search warrant of the State Security Investigation. The accusations were repeated and other charges claimed that they belong to an outlawed group designed to disrupt the Constitution and attack personal freedoms. The SSI has always repeated similar indictments against hundreds of innocent members in previous cases in which those individuals have eventually been released.
In their statement, the leaders claimed that some of the charges were nonsense. In one report they claimed that four thousand Egyptian pounds found in a bag, along with a check, was transferred by one of the Brotherhood’s leading figures into the account of his brother who had in fact died ten years ago. A further charge included the ownership of a number of illegal texts, which were in fact circulating the market having registration numbers in the Egyptian national library (Dar al-Kutub).
The statement also indicated the very strange accusations against the Brotherhood’s leading figures in the case of the alleged international network. It argued that foreign persons abroad having no links with the defendants at home, collected donations from various sources, supposedly to help Palestinians in Gaza during and after the recent war. Although the money collected to help the people of Gaza is not a taboo, it had been collected from abroad at a time when a number of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders were detained in prison and it had been documented and evidently proved by the investigation team. The search warrant was fully prepared by the SSI simultaneously so that most of the defendants in the case are to remain in custody. It says that the ruling regime is infused by a state of confusion.
Bringing the regime to shame is the fact that following the Cairo criminal court"s release order, a number of the Brotherhood who were accused of the same charges, the very next day were arrested and brought before the prosecution under the same case. The court rule acquitted eleven detainees from the same indictment. The Muslim Brotherhood movement wonders how long the SSI will remain detaining the groups subordinates using false and fabricated lies, which are baseless and without clear evidence.
Are there any legal provisions not being implemented? Judicial decisions have no value as long as release is followed by subsequent detentions and jails: only Allah knows where and when it will end. In whose interest is it to seal off companies, displace workers and their families and obstruct productivity at a time when the country is in urgent need for everybody to contribute in reconstruction, development and progress.