Morsi clashes with judge as prison escape trial begins
28 January 2014, 17:31
Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi clashed with judges Tuesday at the opening of his trial on charges relating to his escape from prison in 2011. 'Who are you?' the deposed leader demanded of presiding judge Shaaban al-Shami. Morsi appeared along with 21 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders accused of charges including abducting police officers and storming and escaping from prisons during the uprising against former president Hosny Mubarak.
A further 109 defendants, including alleged members of the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah Islamist movements, are being tried in absentia.
State television showed the Brotherhood leaders being ushered into the defendant's cage, whose bars had been reinforced with a glass barrier sealing them off from the body of the court.
Morsi was placed in a separate, smaller cage, also reinforced with glass.
Wearing white prison uniform rather than the suit he appeared in when his trial on separate charges of inciting the murder of demonstrators began in November, he was shown walking up and down, seemingly looking for someone in the courtroom.
State television did not broadcast the session live as originally announced.
Instead, it showed a brief clip of Morsi shouting and gesticulating, before cutting to footage of the chief prosecutor reading out the lengthy indictment.
As in previous trials of Brotherhood leaders, who have been systematically rounded up by the authorities since Morsi was deposed in July, the proceedings were interrupted by chants of 'Invalid' from the dock.
Witnesses in the courtroom said that Morsi objected to the proceedings, asking the presiding judge, 'Who are you? I don't know you.'
'I am the president of the Cairo Criminal Court,' judge al-Shami replied.
'I've been held since 7 pm yesterday and isolated from the world and haven't met anyone at all,' Morsi complained, adding: 'I am the legitimate president of the country.'
The Brotherhood argues that the charges brought against Morsi and his fellow defendants, who include Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie and former parliamentary speaker Saad al-Katatni, are politically motivated.
Morsi also complained that he could not hear proceedings from inside the glass cage, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported online.
Egypt's Morsi back on trial facing charges of breaking out of prison
Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi was due back in court on Tuesday, this time facing charges of breaking out of prison during the 2011 uprising against veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak. Morsi, deposed by the army in July, is already on trial for allegedly inciting the killings of opposition activists during his presidency, and faces two other trials which have yet to begin.
The ousted president on Tuesday will be tried with 130 other defendants, including members of his banned Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The trial is being held under tight security in a makeshift courtroom inside a police academy on the outskirts of Cairo.
The Islamist leader was deposed by the army in July following massive popular protests against his one-year rule.
He also faces two other trials: one on charges of espionage involving Hamas which is due to open on February 16 and the other for insulting the judiciary for which a date has yet to be set.
Tuesday's hearing comes a day after the powerful military gave its backing to army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to run for the presidency after he led the ouster of Morsi - Egypt's first democratically elected president.
The trial is part of a relentless government crackdown against Morsi and his Islamist supporters that has seen more than 1,400 peopled killed since he was deposed, according to Amnesty International.
Most of those killed have been pro-Morsi demonstrators in street clashes with police and his opponents.
The date of the start of the new trial is symbolic as Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the prison break that occurred during the uprising against Mubarak.
Prosecutors have said almost 70 of the defendants belonged to Hamas or Hezbollah and that some of the defendants were also accused of murdering police officers and helped thousands to escape during the jailbreak.
Morsi was among those who escaped from Wadi Natrun jail.
Voice of Russia, AFP, dpa
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