Deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi Slams Trial Against Him
Egypt's first freely elected President Mohamed Morsi trial on charges of incitement of violence and murder began Monday but will be adjourned until Jan. 8, 2013.
Reports claimed the court adjourned the proceedings to give time the deposed president to obey the court's rules on defendants' clothes and the other defendants to stop chanting against the trial.
Morsi's appearance in the police academy in an eastern Cairo district, flying to the trial venue by helicopter from a secret military location, was his first public appearance since his he was deposed in a military-orchestrated coup on July 3. His co-defendants in the case arrived in armored police cars from their jail in a suburb south of Cairo.
Al Jazeera reports from Cairo said Morsi was wearing his suit when he arrived in the trial.
"The other defendants who turned up for the trial were wearing white boiler suits of prisoners. All prisoners in Egyptian trials are supposed to wear the white boiler suit before they are found guilty. If they are found guilty, they then turn up in a blue boiler suit," Al Jazeera's Sue Turton quoted the military spokesman as saying.
Morsi, however, noted it was undignified for him to wear the white boiler suit of prisoners. He refused to recognize that he was a defendant or he had a case to answer.
Al Jazeera, quoting sources said, Morsi insisted he was still Egypt's president and the trial against him was illegitimate.
"I don't like it for the judges to be part in the coup," Morsi was reported saying.
"I am present in court only because of coercion," he added.
Describing the detention of Morsi as outright kidnapping, Muslim Brotherhood claimed he is expected to represent himself in the trial.
Authorities had moved Sunday the trial location in an attempt to thwart mass rallies by Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
During the last four months in detention, Morsi was extensively questioned and not allowed to meet his lawyers. Reports said he has spoken to his family via telephone twice and received two foreign delegations.
The former president, along with 14 other Muslim Brotherhood members, including Mohamed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian face charges in connection with clashes in Decemeber 2012 outside the Presidential Palace which left at least 10 dead.