Deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will face trial in a criminal court for committing and inciting violence, state-run television has reported without giving a date for the hearing.
Public prosecutor Hesham Barakat referred 62-year-old Morsi and 14 other Muslim Brotherhood members to a criminal court here on charges “of committing acts of violence, and inciting the killing” in December 2012, it had said last night.
In December, deadly clashes broke out between Brotherhood supporters and opponents outside the presidential palace here during a protest against a presidential decree that expanded Morsi’s powers and an Islamist-drafted constitution.
Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, Morsi, was ousted by the army on July 3 after mass protests against him on the anniversary of his election.
Since then Morsi is being held at an undisclosed location on allegations of murder and spying, besides collaborating with Palestinian group Hamas.
A Cairo court had last month ordered the renewal of Morsi’s detention for 30 days pending investigations into his alleged collaboration with Hamas in prison breaks in early 2011 during the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak.
Many Islamist leaders, including Morsi, escaped during the prison breaks.
The co-defendants in the trial include senior Brotherhood figures Mohamed al-Beltagi and leaders such as Essam el-Erian, deputy head of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political wing.