CAIRO - A lawyer for Egypt’s ousted president on Saturday told a Cairo court that it lacked jurisdiction to try Mohammed Morsi, saying the Islamist leader remained Egypt’s legitimate president because there has been no official decree removing him from office.
The hearing, the third since the trial opened in November, was held amid continuing militant attacks and a crackdown on Morsi’s supporters, expanding those targeted to include Islamists who use social media against the military-backed government.
The claims by Morsi’s lawyer, Mohammed Salim el-Awah, came as the trial of the ousted leader and 14 others on charges of inciting the killings of protesters in 2012 resumed amid tight security in a makeshift courtroom in the national police academy in an eastern Cairo suburb.
Morsi has insisted that he remains president. He was held in a soundproof glass cage at Saturday’s hearing and could only address the court directly if the judge allowed it. The trial is one of four that Morsi and top Muslim Brotherhood leaders face. The charges against them mostly carry the death penalty. Saturday’s hearing was adjourned until Tuesday to allow time for a panel of experts to examine video footage presented by the prosecution as evidence. The defense challenged the authenticity of the videos during Saturday’s hearing.
Morsi was ousted in a military coup July 3 after demonstrations calling on him to leave office. He is now being held at a high-security prison near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
The trial stems from violence outside the presidential palace in December 2012. Morsi’s supporters attacked opposition protesters, sparking clashes that killed at least 10 people. The defendants are charged with inciting the killings of three of those protesters.
Morsi’s three other trials are on charges of escaping from prison during the 2011uprising against former autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s rule, conspiracy with foreign militant groups to harm Egypt’s national security and insulting the judiciary.
El-Awah contended that if Morsi was not formally dismissed, then he remains the legitimate president and that the law governing the trial of serving presidents must be observed, according to an account of the proceedings issued by the Egyptian Middle East News Agency.
Morsi and most of the defendants turned their backs to the court when Judge Ahmed Sabry Youssef played several video recordings of the clashes outside the palace in 2012. Morsi, however, remained mostly calm as he stood in his glass cage, in contrast to his outbursts during two previous court appearances, in November and last week.
Egypt has been rocked by a wave of deadly violence since Morsi’s ouster, with the army and security forces facing a full-blown insurgency in the Sinai peninsula. The violence has spread to mainland Egypt, with attacks in Cairo growing more frequent.
There also have been near-daily protests by Morsi’ssupporters. Marchers sometimes carry firearms and use them against security forces.
The military-backed government, meanwhile, has been cracking down on the Brotherhood and its allies, killing hundreds and jailing thousands since July. On Saturday, authorities announced the arrest of seven Morsi supporters for their purported use of social media to incite the killing of policemen.
In the latest violence, the Health Ministry on Saturday said one person was killed in Cairo and 35 were wounded in clashes Friday between police and Morsi’s supporters in Cairo and several other cities.
In northern Sinai, two key members of the Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis - brothers Salamah and Suleiman Abu Malhous - were killed Saturday in clashes with army troops near Sheikh Zuweyid town, security officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media on ongoing military operations.
Information for this article was contributed by Maamoun Youssef and Maggie Hyde of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/02/2014