Egypt prosecutor orders trial for top political activists

CAIRO: Egypt’s public prosecutor ordered a group of political activists to stand trial yesterday on charges they incited violence near the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters in March, a case that has hardened rights activists’ fears of a crackdown.
Judicial sources said the activists numbered at least 10 and included Alaa Abd El Fattah, a blogger who played a leading role in the protests that led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Several hundred people were injured in March in the violence near the headquarters of President Muhammad Mursi’s movement. Also among the activists referred to trial yesterday was Ahmed Douma, who was sentenced to six months in jail on Monday for calling Mursi a criminal.
Abd El Fattah and Douma were among five activists ordered arrested in late March when the prosecutor began investigating the violence.
Those arrest warrants drew a statement of concern from the United States, which supplies Egypt with $ 1.3 billion in military aid each year.
It follows sharp US criticism on Tuesday of an Egyptian court’s decision to convict 43 democracy workers, among them 16 Americans, in a case against international non-governmental organizations.