Suez military court started the trial of 64 leaders and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jama'a al-Islamiya as well as supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsy on charges of inciting attacks on churches and troops, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported Monday.
Military prosecutors have charged defendants with inciting and facilitating the killing of citizens, burning three churches in Suez and setting ablaze five armored vehicles belonging to the Third Field Army.
The defendants are also charged with assaulting public buildings, blocking roads and spreading chaos in Suez following the dispersal of two pro-Morsy sit-ins in Cairo and Giza. The military prosecution said those violent attacks led to the death and injury of citizens.
Helmy Morsy, the lawyer representing the accused from the Muslim Brotherhood, told Anadolu that the defendants had not commited any crimes and that the arrests had been politicized.
Suez witnessed several clashes between protesters supporting and opposing Morsy following the dispersal of the pro-Morsy sit-ins in Cairo and Giza.
The Franciscan Fathers, Good Shepherd and Evangelical churches were set slight in Suez and their contents destroyed, according to eyewitnesses. The attacks on the churches also led to the injury of the priest of the Good Shepherd church and a number of workers at the two other churches.
