Briton jailed in Egypt facing trial delay

Three Britons who claim they were tortured in an Egyptian prison were tonight facing several more months in jail after their trial in Cairo was delayed.

The men, all in their 20s, and married with children, are charged with promoting the goals of a banned Islamic group, including the overthrow of the Egyptian government.

They were arrested in April last year, and claim they were tortured with electric shocks, deprived of sleep, and denied access to lawyers and consular officials while in prison waiting for their trial to begin in October.

Tonight, their families said it was "disgraceful" that the three would be forced to remain in an Egyptian jail until the trial resumes on March 15.

All from the London area, the three, Maajid Nawaz 25, Ian Nisbet 28, and Reza Pankhurst 27, are standing trial in Cairo’s State Security Court with 23 Egyptian men.

Mr Pankhurst, along with Mr Nawaz, is charged with distributing printed material, and the court is waiting for the examination of books found on them to be completed by experts at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, their families said.

Mr Pankhurst’s wife, Hodan, told PA News: "It is disgraceful that it will be nearly one whole year since my children and I last saw Reza before it resumes again.

"Who knows after that, when the this whole unjust trial will come to a real end.

"It is apparent that the judicial process itself is designed to be a punishment."

The men claim they were forced to sign confessions in Arabic which they could not read.

To indicate his situation, Mr Pankhurst inserted the words "lies" and "hurt" into his signature on the confession document.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and other ministers have repeatedly raised their concerns over the torture claims with the Egyptian authorities, and demanded an urgent investigation.

The Egyptian report into the allegations was read by the Foreign Office, the families, and their lawyers who dismissed it as "very vague".

British diplomats, who have been monitoring the trial, are set to raise their concerns over the report’s contents with the Cairo government soon.

Mr Pankhurst described his alleged ordeal in prison when the men first appeared in court in October.

"I was stripped naked, they beat me, they threatened me with sexual abuse... they tortured me with electricity multiple times and we were all deprived of sleep," he claimed.

The group which the men are accused of promoting, Hizb ut-Tahrir, although legal in the UK is outlawed in Egypt following an attempted coup in 1974.