MORSI’S DETENTION EXTENDED 30 DAYS

          Cairo, 8 Muharam 1435/ 12 November 2013 (MINA) –The detention of deposed President Mohamed Morsi has been extended for 30 days by a Cairo appeals court on charges of prison escape and espionage.

          Morsi is accused of orchestrating an escape from Wadi Al-Natrun Prison in Beheira Governate during the 2011 uprising that overthrew long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak as president.

          According to the complaint, Morsi conspired with Palestinian group Hamas to break out of prison with other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, destroying police documents and killing prison security in the process.

           The detainment of Brotherhood leaders Sobhi Saleh, Hamdy Hassan and Saad El-Husseini has been extended for 15 days in the same case, Daily News Egypt reported as monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).

            During the 28 January 2011 prison break, 11,000 inmates escaped Wadi Al-Natrun Prison, and 13 people were killed in the process.

            Morsi appeared in court on 4 November, along with 14 other defendants, on separate charges of inciting the killing of protestors outside the Presidential Palace in December 2012.  The case has been adjourned until 8 January at the behest of the defendants’ legal counsel.  If convicted, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president could face the death penalty.

            Egypt’s deposed president, Mohamed Morsi, has gone on trial on charges of incitement of violence and murder after being brought from the secret location of his detention.

            Morsi’s appearance on Monday at a police academy in an eastern Cairo district was his first public appearance since his military-orchestrated overthrow on July 3.

            If convicted, Morsi – Egypt’s first freely elected president – could face the death penalty.

            He was flown on Monday from a secret military location to the venue of his trial by helicopter.

            Morsi will face charges along with 14 other Brotherhood figures and allies – including Mohamed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian – in connection to clashes last December outside his presidential palace that left at least 10 dead.

            His co-defendants were taken to the trial venue from their jail in a suburb south of Cairo in armoured police cars.

            The trial is fraught with risks and comes amid a highly charged atmosphere in a bitterly polarised nation, with a deepening rift between Morsi’s Islamist supporters in one hand and Egypt’s security establishment and the nation’s moderate Muslims, secularists, Christians and women on the other.

             In a last-minute change, authorities on Sunday switched the trial location, a move apparently aimed at thwarting mass rallies planned by the Muslim Brotherhood, the group to which Morsi belongs.

Tight security

             Security was tight around the trial’s venue on Monday, with hundreds of black-clad riot police backed by armoured vehicles deployed around the complex. Several armoured vehicles belonging to the army were deployed too.

             The final stretch of road leading to the police academy was sealed off, with only authorised personnel and accredited journalists allowed to approach the facility.

             The academy is also being used for the re-trial of another former president – Hosni Mubarak – toppled in a 2011 uprising. He is accused of failing to stop the killing of protesters. .” (T/P04/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)