Inside Report (4)

While public attention is focused on the trial of the late President Anwar Sadat's assassins, another group of young Egyptian officers is being courtmartialed on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government.

The group is made up of 14 Muslim zealots led by Maj. Essam el Emari. All could face a death sentence for an alleged coup plot foiled last spring. The group has been charged with seeking to acquire arms and recruit officers of higher rank.

An investigation uncovered no links between the rebellious Army men and the death squad that carried out Sadat's assassination. When the two ring leaders met by coincidence at an Army prison in Cairo's western desert, they embraced warmly -- but reportedly only because they recognized each other's names.

Other officers with strong religious leanings were purged from the Army shortly after Sadat's assassination. Defense Minister Abdul Halim Abu Ghazala has asserted that the forced retirement of 134 such officers has left the Army ''clean.''m