Ousted president Morsi to stand trial for espionage

Mohamed Morsi and 35 others will be tried for collaborating with foreign organisations to commit terrorist acts and revealing defence secrets

Ahram Online , Wednesday 18 Dec 2013

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Nov. 4, 2013 file image made from video provided by Egypt's Interior Ministry shows ousted President Mohammed Morsi (Photo: AP)

Toppled Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi will stand trial over allegations he collaborated with Hamas, Hezbollah and other organisations to commit terrorist acts in Egypt, judicial sources have told Ahram Online.

The deposed leader and thirty five co-defendants – including prominent members of his Muslim Brotherhood and former presidential advisers – will face trial for "collaborating with foreign organisations to commit terrorist acts in Egypt, revealing defence secrets to a foreign country, funding terrorists and military training to achieve the purposes of the international organisation of the Brotherhood," a statement by the prosecutor-general's office said.

The statement added: Brotherhood leaders collaborated with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah and other organisations "inside and outside" Egypt to smuggle arms, organised military training for group members in the Gaza Strip, and funded a plan to stir chaos and threaten national security in Egypt.

Prosecutors also accuse the group of sponsoring terrorist attacks on army and police targets in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel, following Morsi's ouster.

Nineteen defendants are already being detained and prosecutors have ordered the arrest of the seventeen others, the statement added.

Among Morsi's co-defendants are Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, his two deputies Khairat El-Shater and Mahmoud Ezzat, and prominent members Saad El-Katatni, Essam El-Erian and Mahmoud El-Beltagy. Former presidential aide Refaa El-Tahtawy along with his two deputies are also on trial.

The statement added that Morsi presidential aides, including Essam El-Haddad, his national security advisor, had divulged secret reports to the Brotherhood international organisation, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah in return for their cooperation in terrorist operations

The charges against the defendants span the period between 2005 and 2013.

The Egyptian authorities have since launched a sustained crackdown on his Islamist supporters, in which hundreds were killed in clashes with security forces and thousands others arrested.

Morsi is on trial for the killing of opposition protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012.