For first time in 3 years, Brotherhood leader sees his mother

Mohamed Al-Beltagi, a jailed senior leader in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, saw his mother yesterday for the first time since he was arrested in the wake of the military coup which ousted the first democratically elected Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.

His lawyer, Ahmed Sa’ed, said that the judge who presided over Al-Beltagi’s hearing allowed for him to exit the dock for only ten minutes so that he could hold his mother’s hand, an elderly woman who is confined to a wheelchair.

According to Sa’ed, Al-Beltagi’s meeting with his mother was very “emotional” and he said that Al-Beltagi knelt down and kissed the hands of his sick mother and spoke to her for a short time before being taken away again.

One of the reasons why Al-Beltagi has been unable to see his mother over the past three years is due to her ill health, according to his lawyer.

Al-Beltagi is a former parliamentarian and was one of the symbols of the 25 January 2011 Egyptian Revolution, which ousted the dictator Hosni Mubarak. He was arrested in the wake of the military coup orchestrated by current President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

The Cairo Criminal Court adjourned Al-Beltagi’s hearing yesterday along with the hearing for Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 736 other defendants until 17 January 2017.

Al-Beltagi was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison over several accusations relating to his membership of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ousted Morsi.