No military trial for Morsi on Monday

An Egyptian judicial source denied media reports claiming that Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi will stand trial in a military court along with 199 Muslim Brotherhood members to face violence- related charges on Monday, the Anadolu Agency reported.

The source, who requested anonymity, said: “The military prosecution has set 23 February as the date for the trial of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Badie and Khairat Al-Shater, along with 197 other group members.”

“Ousted President Morsi, however, is not among those referred to the court,” he said.

The source pointed out that Morsi would not face charges as he was in custody at the time of the violence.

The defendants include Safwat Hijazi, Islamic preacher close to the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed El-Beltagy, a member of the Freedom and Justice Party and Ahmed Mahmoud, party secretary in Suez, and Saad Al-Khalifa, head of the Brotherhood’s administrative office in Suez.

The defendants are tried on charges related to acts of violence that occurred in the city of Suez following the dispersal of two major pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo in mid-2013 in which hundreds of demonstrators were killed.

They are accused of inciting and orchestrating attacks against army troops guarding state institutions and arson attacks on military vehicles and churches.

Morsi is being tried with other defendants on multiple charges including storming Egyptian prisons during the January 25, 2011 revolution, incitement to kill opponents, insulting the judiciary and espionage.

All the defendants deny the charges.