Egypt: Morsi’s trial resumes in 2011 jailbreak case

A Cairo criminal court will today resume the trial of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted in a coup in 2013, and others over orchestrating a jailbreak and freeing inmates during the 2011 uprising.

The 28 defendants facing trial alongside Morsi include prominent Islamic scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi who lives in Qatar and will be tried in absentia, the Muslim Brotherhood group’s supreme guide Mohamed Badei, and the former parliament speaker Saad Al-Katatny.

Members of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah are also being tried in the same case.

The defendants are accused of infiltrating Egypt’s eastern borders, attacking police and security installations, breaking into the Wady Al-Natroun prison and freeing inmates, killing a police officer in collaboration with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah with the aid of members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

READ: Canadian citizen detained in Egypt jails, says foreign ministry