Judge in Morsi's Itihadiya trial prevents media from attending witness-hearing sessions

The chairman of Cairo Criminal Court Judge Ahmad Sabry decided to forbid the media from attending Sunday’s witness-hearing sessions in Itihadiya case “to protect national security”. The session will be “confidential”.

The Cairo Criminal Court adjourned Saturday’s session till today to hear testimonies from a number of witnesses, including five members of the Republican Guards who were in service during Morsi’s rule.

Defendants in the Itihadiya presidential palace trial include the ousted President Mohammed Morsi and 14 Muslim Brotherhood leaders and former senior aides at the presidency. The 14 defendants, seven of them tried in absentia, are charged with incitement to kill three opposition protesters outside Itihadiya presidential palace on December 5, 2012. At least eight Morsi supporters were shot dead in the same incident, but the court eliminated their names from the case, according to leaked documents broadcast on Al-Jazeera.