Morsi And Other Defendants Enter Glass Cages As Trial Begins

The trial of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and others charged with illegally breaking out of jail during Egypt's 2011 uprising kicked off on Tuesday, Egyptian state television reported.



Morsi and 21 other defendants entered two glass cages chanting anti-army slogans and flashing the four-fingered Rabaa sign, which commemorates hundreds of demonstrators killed in Cairo last August when security forces dispersed two major pro-Morsi sit-ins.



The defendants shouted "Down with military rule" and flashed the Rabaa sign, according a correspondent from Egyptian state television.



The accused then tuned their back to the presiding judge to protest the trial, the correspondent said.



Morsi was placed in his own glass cage, while the other 21 defendants were grouped in a separate cage, the reporter said, noting that defendants waved in greeting to the deposed leader.



The trial began one hour later than scheduled. Egyptian authorities gave no reason for the delay.



Along with Morsi, defendants in the case include Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie; Badie's deputy, Mahmoud Ezzat; former parliament speaker Saad al-Katatni; and senior group members Mohamed al-Beltagi, Essam Erian and Saad al-Husseini.



The list also includes members of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and Lebanese militant faction Hezbollah, along with prominent Qatar-based Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi – all of whom are to be tried in absentia.



According to a statement issued by investigating judges, 800 foreign operatives crossed the border into the Sinai Peninsula from the Gaza Strip during Egypt's January 2011 uprising that ousted longstanding president Hosni Mubarak.



The statement goes on to claim that the operatives attacked police and government facilities in Sinai, leaving several policemen dead, before breaking into Wadi Natrun, Abu Zaabal and Al-Marg prisons in northern Cairo.



It also accuses the attackers of killing more than 50 policemen and prisoners before helping their associates escape with more than 20,000 other convicts.



The defendants insist that virtually all of the charges against them are politically motivated.



By Islam Mosaad



englishnews@aa.com - Kahire