CAIRO
A Human Right Watch (HRW) official has described spying charges against Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi as 'fantastical'.
"They are pretty fantastical, to say the least,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the regional director for Human Rights Watch, The New York Times reported.
On Wednesday, Egypt's prosecutor-general referred Morsi, three of his former aides, and 31 Muslim Brotherhood leaders to a criminal court to answer charges of espionage.
The men are accused of "conspiring" with Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah to carry out a "terrorist plot" in Egypt, according to a statement issued by the prosecutor-general's office.
The defendants also face charges of financing terrorism and committing acts deemed "harmful to the country's security and integrity."
Whitson accused military-backed authorities of using the judiciary and the media to generate the notion that the Muslim Brotherhood is a "terrorist" group.
"Through both legal processes and their control of the media, the government has been trying to generate this notion that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization carrying out violent acts, with the absence of any evidence, and these charges really underscore the extent to which the government is focused on exterminating the Muslim Brotherhood as a political opposition," Whitson said.
"It is an all-out campaign to destroy it."
Egyptian authorities have launched a massive crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement from which Morsi hails, following his July 3 ouster.
Since then, hundreds of Brotherhood leaders and members were rounded up and accused of inciting violence and participating in attacks on police stations and Coptic houses of worship.
The Brotherhood, however, denies the accusations and accuses the military-backed authorities of making politically-motivated arrests.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
