The Lawyers Syndicate a received letter from supreme state security prosecution delegating 10 lawyers to defend toppled President Mohamed Morsy and 35 others of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to request by the Cairo Criminal Court which reviews the espionage lawsuit.
The lawsuit was postponed to 23 February until lawyers are delegated as the defense withdrew during the last session.
Sameh Ashour, chief of the syndicate, said they have begun communication with lawyers and that some lawyers rejected to take charge of the defense in the lawsuit, while others accepted.
Although some prominent lawyers accepted to defend Morsy and other suspects, the 10-member list hadn’t been completed yet, Ashour said, adding that the names will be declared once the list is completed and will be sent to Court of Appeal to hand it over to the Criminal Court, which reviews the lawsuit.
Mohamed Othman, head of the syndicate’s north Cairo branch, said they received the letter from the prosecution and that they forwarded the letter to the general syndicate as the letter was originally addressing the it. He added that they started coordination with the general syndicate over selecting the lawyers.
Once the letter was received and situation of Morsy’s defense was declared, according to Othman, prominent lawyers addressed the syndicate to defend Morsy and the others
Inter alia, prosecutors accused Morsy of espionage for Hamas and providing its members with information about the Egyptian security situation during the 25 January revolution. They also accused him of helping detained Hamas members in Egyptian prisons to escape during the January uprising.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
