Luxor Criminal Court adjourned the trial of four defendants accused of forging signatures in favor of presidential candidate Amr Moussa on Tuesday until 9 June.
The court’s head judge ordered everyone except lawyers out of the courtroom in order to avoid any clashes between the defendants relatives who had filled the courtroom.
The defendants’ defense team included seven lawyers, three of whom came from Cairo. The lawyers accused the Muslim Brotherhood of fabricating the charges for their clients with the intention of damaging Moussa’s reputation.
Lawyer Mustafa Attiya, who filed the case, said this is a criminal case and that the forgery incident included all of the elements of a crime.
The incident dates back to 17 March, when campaign coordinators for presidential candidates Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh and Mohamed Selim al-Awa and excluded presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail filed a complaint to the public prosecutor accusing the notary office staff in Luxor of forging over 600 signatures in favor of Moussa.
The Public Prosecution investigated the incident in the same month and investigators discovered a number of signatures in favor of Moussa had been notarized during non-working hours, and without payment of transfer fees.
The Presidential Elections Law states that candidates must obtain 30,000 signatures from at least 15 governorates or the signatures of 30 Parliament members.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
