Cairo Criminal Court suspended Thursday afternoon the trial of former president Mohamed Morsi and 35 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders on charges of espionage.
The suspension is to allow the court to look into defence lawyer demands that trial judges be changed on the basis of claimed faults in trial procedures. The trial was resumed earlier Thursday after it was adjourned Sunday.
Lawyers representing Safwat Hegazy and Mohamed El-Beltagy who said they represent all defendants in the case requested Sunday that the judges in the case be changed.
Morsi and 35 other Brotherhood leading figures stand accused of collaborating with foreign organisations, namely "Hamas in Gaza," to commit acts of terrorism in Egypt, of revealing defence secrets to a foreign country, funding terrorists and organising militant training "to achieve the purpose of the international organisation of the Brotherhood," according to a statement from the prosecution.
