Trial of al-Qaeda leader's brother, others delayed

Cairo Criminal Court has adjourned until next Tuesday the trial of 68 terrorists, including Mohamed el Zawahri, the brother of al Qaeda leader Ayman el Zawahri, on charges of forming a terrorist organization affiliated with al Qaeda.
The Qaeda offshoot was planning to target state facilities, army and police troops and Copts.
Defendants also face charges of plotting terrorist acts with the aim to create chaos and harm the society.
Of all 68 defendants, 18 are still at large.
A probe revealed that Mohamed al Zawahri had restructured the terrorist organization while the political landscape was changing in Egypt, which was then under the rule of Mohamed Morsi.
Zawahri formed the extremist group and supplied them with firearms to be ready to fight the state whenever protests against Morsi escalated, according to the investigation.
His aim was to harm the state's security and its economic potentials, the probe revealed.
Zawahri, with the help of terrorists Nabil el Maghrabi, Mohamed Hegazi, Dawoud Khairat and Abdel Rahman Eskandar, was able to attract more elements to the group.
The elements got military training in secret places in Minya el Qamh area and in a ranch near Belbais in Sharqiya governorate, the probe said.
An under-construction mosque in Matariya and a store in the 6th of October City were also used to train the terrorist elements, the probe added.
The organization was later divided into cells with specific tasks, the investigation said.