Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood slams Mubarak testimony

<p>ISTANBUL (AA) – Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood group has vociferously denied the veracity of testimony given by former president Hosni Mubarak regarding Egypt’s popular uprising in 2011 that ended the latter’s 30-year rule.</p> <p><br></p> <p>“What happened at the trial [i.e., Mubarak’s testimony] was an attempt to discredit and tarnish the uprising’s image,” Brotherhood spokesman Talaat Fahmi told a foreign-based Egyptian television channel late Wednesday.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Earlier the same day, Mubarak had appeared in court to testify at the retrial of his successor, Mohamed Morsi, who faces charges of participating in a mass jailbreak in 2011. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Fahmi asked: “If [Mubarak] believed the January revolution was a [foreign] conspiracy, why did he accept to step down and leave the country when he still had presidential authority?”</p> <p><br></p> <p>He went on: “How can 800 people breach Egypt’s 100-kilometer border [with Gaza], pass 10 security checkpoints, cross the Suez Canal, and finally arrive at Tahrir Square [the epicenter of the 2011 uprising], as Mubarak claims, without anyone trying to stop them?”</p> <p><br></p> <p>Wednesday’s court session was the first time for Mubarak and Morsi to see one another since the former relinquished power in 2011 following 18 days of countrywide demonstrations. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Morsi was elected president in 2012, one year after Mubarak stepped down. </p> <p><br></p> <p>After a single year in power, however, Morsi was himself ousted in a military coup and slapped with a host of criminal charges, which he and his supporters insist are politically motivated. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Following Morsi’s ouster in mid-2013, the Egyptian authorities launched a relentless crackdown on political dissent, killing or imprisoning thousands of Morsi’s supporters and members of his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.</p>