Tuesday 28 January 2014

EGYPT: Ex-President Morsi Back In Court Over Prison Break

Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's former Islamist president, stands trial today over his jailbreak during the 2011 uprising and a range of other charges.

Egypt's first freely elected president was deposed by the military on July 3 after mass protests against his rule.
Morsi stood inside a glass cage at the start of his trial, shouting: "I am the president of the republic, how can I be kept in a dump for weeks?"
Ex-president stands accused of organizing a mass escape from a prison during the 2011 uprising that overthrown President Hosni Mubarak, as well as the murder of prison officers.
Prosecutors say Morsi and about 130 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders were freed from jail illegally on 30 January 2011 in an intervention from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
When Morsi first appeared in court in November in a separate trial, he and 14 other members of the Muslim Brotherhood faced charges of inciting the killing of protesters in clashes outside the presidential palace in December 2012, while Morsi was in office.

During that trial, the former president refused to recognize the court's legitimacy. He also shouted slogans against the court and the current government.
On 19 January, it was reported that he and 24 others would also go on trial for allegedly insulting the judiciary, while in office.
The fourth trial will be on charges of conspiring with foreign organizations - the Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah - to commit "terrorist acts".
Unlike Morsi's first court appearance, last November, the session on Tuesday is being broadcast on domestic television.
No pro-Morsi supporters have gathered outside the court's building in Cairo. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organization and authorities have punished any public showing of support for it.
Also today, two gunmen on a motorbike killed a senior Egyptian Interior Ministry official outside his home in Cairo.

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