Despite the acquittal of Khayrat al-Shāṭir, the second deputy of the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide, along with 39 prominent members of the group by a Cairo criminal court ruling, President Muhammad Ḥusnī Mubārak, acting in his capacity as the supreme commander of the armed forces, referred the detainees to military trials amidst wide scale denunciation from human rights organizations and Egyptian political forces.