CAIRO-
Ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi appeared in the court on Tuesday on the start of a new trial over charges of prison breaks during the country’s 2011 revolution, state media reported.
Taking place at a police academy complex in eastern Cairo, the court conducting the trial was heavily guarded by security forces while State television showed briefly showed live footage from inside the courtroom before the trial started.
Morsi flew in by a helicopter from Borg al-Arab prison in Alexandria and stood in a separate cage from the other defendants in the case who had their backs turned to the court in protest of their prosecution.
Out of the 129 defendants in the case, including members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, only 19 are in detention by the authorities while the rest are on the fugitives.
The case involves 2011’s prison escape of more than 20,000 inmates when about 800 foreign fighters entered Egypt through Gaza and stormed three prisons and killed a number of police officers and prisoners.0 Morsi and other members of the Muslim Brotherhood were also among the escapees.
Authorities accuse Morsi and the other defendants of plotting to “destroy the Egyptian state and its institutions,” during the early days of the 18-day uprising against ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
In the court, Morsi insisted he was still the Egypt’s legitimate president and challenged the authority of the court, regularly interrupting the judges and prosecutors.
Morsi also faces three other cases, including one on charges of authorising murdering his opponents while he was the president. Morsi missed the hearing for that trial on January 8 due to bad weather conditions. Trials on other charges are yet to be initiated.
-AGENCIES