Egypt’s toppled president Mohammed Morsi stood inside a glass-encased metal cage today, separated from other defendants for the start of a new trial over charges concerning prison breaks during the country’s 2011 revolution.
Morsi flew by helicopter from Borg al-Arab prison in Alexandria.
Only 19 of the 129 other defendants in the case, including the leader of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group and other leading figures, are held by authorities. The rest, including members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, are on the run.
Morsi appeared in a separate cage from the other defendants in the case, who turned their back to the court, a form of protest over their prosecution.
The case is rooted in the 2011 escape of more than 20,000 inmates from Egyptian prisons – including Morsi and other Brotherhood members – during the early days of the 18-day uprising against ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
Authorities accuse Morsi and the other defendants of plotting to “destroy the Egyptian state and its institutions”, conspiring with the foreign groups who infiltrated Egypt through Gaza and using the turmoil during the uprising to organise the prison breaks.
The prosecutors said more than 800 foreign fighters entered Egypt through Gaza to take part in the storming of three prisons and killed a number of police officers and inmates.
A Brotherhood lawyer has said the trial appears aimed at “denigrating” Morsi and the Brotherhood.
It is Morsi’s second court appearance since Egypt’s popularly backed July 3 military coup. He missed a hearing in another trial on January 8 after security officials said bad weather grounded a helicopter that was meant to bring him.
The hearing is at a police academy complex in eastern Cairo, where a heavy security presence stood guard. State television briefly showed live coverage from inside the courtroom before the trial started.
Morsi is facing three other trials on different charges. Only one of those trials, where he is accused of inciting murder of his opponents while in office, has begun. Many of the charges he faces carry the death sentence.
In his first appearance, Morsi insisted he was still the country’s legitimate president and challenged the legitimacy of the court, regularly interrupting the judges and prosecutors. The glass window over the metal cage is apparently to muffle the defendants’ outbursts.
Since Morsi’s removal on July 3 in a popularly-backed military coup, hundreds of senior Brotherhood leaders have been arrested in a widening crackdown against a group that authorities accuse of retaliating with a violent campaign.
Hundreds of supporters also have been killed in security crackdown on protests that often turned violent. The group denies using violence to achieve its goal of having Morsi reinstated.
Today, hundreds of Morsi supporters clashed with police officers, with television footage showing protesters burning tyres and police shooting tear gas canisters.
It is the third anniversary of the “Friday of Rage”, one of the most violent days of the 2011 uprising when protesters and police clashed for hours before police withdrew from the streets and the military deployed.
Source:Breakingnews
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