• 00:56
  • Monday ,10 November 2014
العربية

Mursi palace clashes trial postponed

By Aswat Masriya

Copts and Poliltical Islam

00:11

Monday ,10 November 2014

Mursi palace clashes trial postponed
The Cairo Criminal Court postponed on Sunday the trial of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi over complicity in the killing of protesters until December 1.The Cairo Criminal Court postponed on Sunday the trial of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi over complicity in the killing of protesters until December 1.
 
Mursi is standing trial alongside 14 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders accused of killing, torturing and inciting violence against protesters outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace during his tenure in December 2012. 
 
A judicial source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Aswat Masriya that the postponement was to "continue hearing the defence team's pleas."
 
In April, a gag order was issued against media coverage of the trial.
 
The Cairo Criminal Court nevertheless announced on November 1 that the defence hearing will be broadcast.
 
Clashes erupted between Mursi supporters and anti-Mursi protesters outside the presidential palace in Cairo on December 5, 2012, leaving over 10 killed. Protesters were holding a sit-in against a constitutional declaration issued by Mursi in November, criticised for giving him sweeping powers.
 
Other defendants in the case include senior Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and Brotherhood leaders Essam el-Erian and Mohamed El-Beltagy.
 
The former president, ousted since July 2013, is implicated in a group of other court cases. He is being tried for escaping from the Wadi al-Natroun prison during the 18-day January 25 uprising in 2011, insulting the judiciary, and two separate espionage cases.