CAIRO, October 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Twenty-two Egyptians and three young Britons accused of belonging to a banned Islamic Liberation Party pleaded not guilty Sunday, October 20, at the start of a trial in a security court that has drawn flak from Amnesty International.

One of the Britons, Reza Pankhurst, said he and fellow defendants rounded up in April had been subjected to prolonged torture following their arrest, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Pankhurst, fellow Britons Ian Malcolm Nisbett and Maajid Nawaz, and 22 Egyptians stand accused of belonging to and trying to reactivate the banned Islamic Liberation Party, and aiming to overthrow the government.

A 23rd Egyptian is being tried in absentia.

The suspects are being tried in Egypt's supreme state security court, whose verdicts are not subject to appeal. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to 25 years in jail with hard labor.

Three British diplomats attended the first hearing of the trial, which was adjourned until October 28.

"We have no role to play. What is important is their conditions of detention," the embassy's spokesman Irfan Siddik said. "It's good they [the Britons] asked for translators."

One of the Britons answered "not guilty" in Arabic when questioned by the judge, like the others.

"We were tortured the first four days after we were arrested," 27-year-old Pankhurst told AFP from a caged dock in which he and all his co-defendants were packed.

"My hands and legs were tied by ropes, they put electric sticks on my legs," said the Briton, who wore a T-shirt and white trousers, adding that a confession which he later retracted had been made under the duress of torture.

Pankhurst, Nisbett, 24, and Nawaz, 28, have said they traveled to Cairo to study Arabic.

"Reza wasn't doing anything. He was in the house and police broke down the door to arrest him," said his mother Zara Pankhurst, who is of Iranian origin and came from London for the trial.

In August, a judicial source said Reza Pankhurst had confessed to being in charge of organizing Islamic Liberation Party cells in Egypt, while Nawaz had said he was seeking the overthrow of all leaders of Muslim countries.

Their compatriot, computer engineer Nisbett had called for an Islamic caliphate, according to the source.

On Saturday, rights group Amnesty International expressed concern that Egypt had not allowed investigation of reports that the defendants had been tortured in custody.

"Reports that these men were tortured are deeply worrying and our concerns have grown following the apparent intransigence of the Egyptian authorities who are refusing to allow independent medical examinations of the men," Amnesty said in a statement.

"The fact that the Egyptian authorities recently denied an Amnesty International delegation access to the men only adds to our concern for their welfare."

The rights group also charged that the security court trying the men was a tribunal of exception that violated international fair trial standards.

The movement spread to several Arab countries, including Egypt where it was disbanded following an attempted coup in the 1970s.

Under emergency laws in force in Egypt, the defendants had been held without charge for renewable two-week periods.