The Cairo Criminal Court resumed at the Police Academy on Saturday the trial of deposed president Mohamed Morsy and 131 others over charges related to prisoners escape from prison in 2011 during the uprising that toppled Morsy’s predecessor Hosni Mubarak.
Morsy, addressing the judge, said the court should not take part in a " farce," referring to the trial, insisting that he is still "the president of the republic," adding that he was forced out of his office in July 2013 as a result of a "military coup by the Defense Minister."
"The traitors will inevitably be betrayed," Morsy said when the trial began on Saturday.
"Down with the military rule," other defendants chanted inside the dock.
The defendants, who were arrested shortly after the 30 June uprising, have rarely had contact with the world outside their cell. Thus, they have frequently used their high-profile public appearance to air grievances of their treatment. "We are being tortured at al-Aqrab Prison and are treated like animals," Brotherhood leader Hamdy Hassan said.
Mohamed Selim al-Awa, who heads the defense lawyers, approached his clients at the glass dock, asking them to be quit in order for the trial's proceedings to continue. "We want to make sure we are heard," some of them replied.
Awa demanded an investigation into recordings of defendants conversations with their lawyers which have recently been circulated by media outlets.
The 131 defendants mainly hail from Muslim Brotherhood leadership, including the group’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, as well members from Palestinian faction Hamas and Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
The defendants are accused of invading 11 prisons, assaulting police departments and kidnapping four officers in February 2011.
A high-profile security source told state-run agency MENA that all defendants arrived to the court Saturday morning amid tight security measures, adding that Morsy is being prepared for transfer from his detention at Borg al-Arab prison in Alexandria.
Workers at the court conducted a check on the glass dock where the defendants are kept during the trial to ensure they hear the procedures as they had previously complained they could not hear through the glass.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm and MENA
