Ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi will face court on May 23 alongside 24 others for the charge of insulting the judiciary, an appeals court announced on Wednesday.
Morsi and the 24 other defendants were referred to criminal court in January 2014 after being accused of expressing their opinion in a manner which insulted the judiciary and its men. The defendants are implicated in separate incidents which involve the same charge.
The list of defendants includes former Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mahdy Akef, chairman of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party Saad al-Katatni and Brotherhood leading figure Mohamed al-Beltagy.
It also includes politicians and activists who opposed Morsi's rule such as former parliamentarians Mostafa al-Naggar and Amr Hamzawy, and political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah. Abdel Fattah is currently in jail pending retrial, after a criminal court sentenced him to 15 years in prison last June for violating the protest law.
Egypt's former president, ousted since July 2013 faces an array of charges in several other cases including inciting the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace during his tenure in December 2012, escaping prison during the January 25 uprising in 2011, as well as two separate espionage cases.
