[JURIST] The nephew of assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat [CNN profile] began a sit-in in front of Egypt's parliament on Tuesday to protest his upcoming military trial [JURIST report] for implicating the Egyptian army in his uncle's assassination 25 years ago [BBC archive]. Talat al-Sadat declared his intent to boycott his trial on Wednesday, claiming his right to a defense team has been violated and that he refused to be tried by a military court. He stressed his innocence and affirmed his respect for the army.

Al-Sadat, a politician from the small Al-Ahrar [Wikipedia backgrounder] opposition party, has recently stepped up his attacks on the government of President Hosni Mubarak [official profile]. In several interviews marking the 25th anniversary of his uncle's death, al-Sadat insinuated [Aljazeera report] that Mubarak, the then-vice-president who has governed Egypt [JURIST news archive] since the assassination, was involved in the murder and that senior army officials and his uncle's bodyguards were party to it. Egyptian rights groups have also decried al-Sadat's military trial [AFP report], contending his only crime was exercising freedom of speech. AFP has more.