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Cairo: A senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's biggest opposition force, believes that a decision by a military tribunal yesterday to adjourn a ruling in the trial of 40 members of the banned group, is politically inspired.
"The decision to refer the 40 brethren to the military court was political in the first place and so is the postponement," Mohammad Habib, the Deputy Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Gulf News.
The court was originally scheduled on Tuesday to pronounce its verdict on the trial, which started 14 months ago. The court, however, adjourned the ruling until March 25. The defendants, being tried on charges of money laundering and terrorism, include the Brotherhood's number 3 Khyrat Al Shater and eight university professors.
Municipal polls
"The postponement is also related to the upcoming municipal elections as the regime and its ruling party are bent on distracting the attention of the Brotherhood away from preparing for these polls," said Habib.
Last week, President Hosni Mubarak decreed that the municipal elections be held on April 8, two years after its original date.
"The regime is afraid that the Brotherhood will make gains in the upcoming polls similar to those they made in the parliamentary elections in 2005," added Habib.
The group, who holds 88 seats at the 454-member Parliament, is seen as the main opposition to Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
Banned since 1950s, the Muslim Brotherhood fields its candidates in elections as independents.
Habib is pessimistic about the court verdict.
"The key aim of referring the 40 members to the court is to discourage the group from contesting the local elections. But we are not frightened and will go ahead to run in the elections for political and social reform."
Habib said that police yesterday detained 16 members of the group in Giza, south of Cairo. The detention is the latest in a clampdown on the group.
A member of the ruling party, however, denied that the postponement was a political move.
"This is a decision taken only by the court upon its discretion," added Jalal Ouda, who is also a professor of political science.
"No one can comment on a court decision," he told this paper.
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