DEFENDANTS ARRIVE IN CAIRO COURT FOR TRIAL SESSION
Cairo, 5 Rabi’ul Akhir 1435/5 Febuary 2014 (MINA) – A security source told Anadolu Agency that the seven defendants had arrived to the court venue from Cairo’s Tora prison, where they are being held.
Seven defendants arrived Wednesday to Cairo’s Police Academy for a new session of their trial on charges of incitement to the killing of protesters two years ago, amid conflicting reports on the whereabouts of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, a defendant in the same case.
A security source told Anadolu Agency that the seven defendants had arrived to the court venue from Cairo’s Tora prison, where they are being held.
The source said Morsi has not arrived yet from Burg al-Arab prison in the coastal city of Alexandria, where he is being held, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
However, another source said that Morsi had likely spent the night inside the Academy, where he attended a trial session on Tuesday.
The ousted president and 14 other defendants – including several high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood leaders – face charges of inciting the murder of opposition demonstrators during clashes which broke out between Morsi’s supporters and opponents outside Cairo’s Ittihadiya presidential palace in late 2012.
Seven of the defendants are being tried in absentia.
In the Tuesday session, the presiding judge adjourned the trial to summon witnesses, including Ahmed Zaki, who served as head of the Republican Guard at the time, along with other high-level Republican Guard officials.
A total of 11 people were killed in the clashes, but the case only addresses the killing of one reporter and two anti-Morsi protesters.
The families of the other eight victims – said to be members of the Muslim Brotherhood – have previously asked for their slain relatives to be added to the case, along with new defendants accused of killing them.
Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president, was unseated by Egypt’s military last July following protests against his one-year presidency.
He has since been detained pending trial on multiple charges, which he – along with other defendants in the various cases against him – says are politically motivated.
Morsi insists that he still represents Egypt’s legitimate president and has refused to recognize the trial’s legitimacy.(T/E01/IR)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
