General Prosecutor Hesham Barakat referred Saturday former president Mohamed Morsy and ten others to a criminal trial over charges of collaboration with Qatar.
A judicial source said an official declaration would be made by Barakat shortly.
In the new trial, Morsy, who has been charged of murder and escape from prison, is accused of leaking documents sensitive to the country’s national security and military institution to Qatar through its satellite channel Al Jazeera when he was president of Egypt.
Head of the Supreme State Security Prosecution Emas Shaarawy had interrogated Morsy inside his custody detention over the new charges
Judicial sources had told Al-Masry Al-Youm in earlier statements that prosecutors also questioned former senior presidency officials Mohamed Refaa al-Tahtawy and Ahmed Abdel Atty in relation to the charges. The pair, however, are not yet determined either as defendants or prosecution witnesses.
Qatar was the major Arab ally and financer for Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood, publicly denouncing his ouster by the military last year. The new Egyptian government consequently severed relations with Qatar in protest, closing Al Jazeera, banning the channel from reporting in Egypt and accusing it biased, pro-Brotherhood reporting. The government later cracked down on the channel, arresting many correspondants operating out of Egypt and accusing them of spreading false news and trying to destabilize the country.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
