• 07:34
  • Monday ,09 March 2015
العربية

Egypt court postpones Mursi trial over "espionage for Qatar" charges

By-aswatmasriya

Copts and Poliltical Islam

00:03

Monday ,09 March 2015

Egypt court postpones Mursi trial over

Cairo's criminal court postponed the trial of ousted president Mohamed Mursi for charges of spying for Qatar. Cairo's criminal court postponed the trial of ousted president Mohamed Mursi for charges of spying for Qatar. 

The next session will be held tomorrow and will be a secret session.
 
Mursi, who was ousted in July 2013, stands trial alongside 10 others, including two of his aides over accusations of leaking classified national intelligence to the Qatari intelligence.  
 
This trial started last month, with Mursi saying in the first hearing that he was brought to court "forcibly". 
 
Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat accused Mursi and his two aides, head of his presidential office Ahmed Abdel Aati and personal secretary Amin al-Serafy, of seizing classified national security intelligence and delivering it to the Qatari intelligence and the Qatari news network al-Jazeera.
 
He said they leaked the intelligence with the help of eight "spies" and in exchange for a million dollars, adding that they were carrying out the instructions of the "terrorist" Muslim Brotherhood international organisation.
 
Egypt's top prosecutor referred all 11 of them to court in September of last year. 
 
Mursi has refused to answer questions on this case during investigation.
 
Mursi now stands trial in a total of five cases, facing an array of charges including other espionage charges, inciting to kill protesters outside the presidential palace during his tenure, insulting the judiciary and escaping prison during the January 2011 uprising. 
 
Egyptian-Qatari ties have been strained since Mursi's military ouster, with the authorities replacing Mursi's regime viewing Qatar as a Brotherhood sympathiser, using the Qatari Al Jazeera network for this aim.