Ousted president Mohamed Morsy has described accusations of espionage as “a farce” as the Giza Criminal Court postponed his trial over leaking national security secrets to 28 February.
The court kicked off on Sunday the trial of Morsy and ten others over charges of leaking information deemed sensitive to the country’s national security to the state of Qatar, Morsy’s strongest political and financial backer during his one-year stint.
The ex-president and his team are charged of informing the Qatari intelligence of the army’s military depots and other details of the country’s policies.
During the session, Morsy, asked by the judge about how he pleads to the petition filed against him, said he challenges the court’s competence, describing the trial as “a farce”, and insisting that he was still the country’s legitimate president.
“He who planned the coup on 3 July should be tried instead of me,” Morsy was quoted as saying, referring to incumbent president and former military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who ousted him over mass protests against his rule.
“You described the court as a farce and this is an insult to the judges, but given your circumstances, we are not filing criminal charges against you for that,” judge Mohamed Sherin Fahmy replied.
Morsy and 35 others from the Muslim Brotherhood are expecting another verdict on 16 May for separate espionage charges, in which defendants are accused of collaboration and espionage for Palestinian faction Hamas, Lebanese militia Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Muslim Brotherhood leaders and supporters insist that their trials are politicized. International observers have also expressed concern that the trials
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
