Morsi charged with jailbreak as violence continues in Cairo

Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has been charged with breaking out of jail during the 2011 uprising and conspiring with foreign groups, including Lebanon's Hizbullah, to spread violent chaos throughout Egypt.

Elsewhere in Cairo yesterday, turmoil continued with the murder of a police general who was shot dead in a street in the west of the city.

In what was his second public appearance since his military-backed removal in July, Mr Morsi was charged alongside several high-ranking members of the Muslim Brotherhood including the group's spiritual leader, Mohammed Badie. Egypt's state media reported that judges then postponed the trial until February 22nd to allow lawyers time to review the case's files.

'Traitors'
The defendants were portrayed as traitors working in the interests of foreign powers, with dozens of Palestinians charged in absentia in the same case.

Mr Morsi is accused of conspiring with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas as well as with Hizbullah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The trial is the second of four that Mr Morsi will face. In November he was charged with inciting the murder of protesters during his presidency, and he will be accused of espionage and insulting Egypt’s judicial system at a later date.

Yesterday’s session was procedural, and largely avoided the pandemonium that characterised his first appearance in November, when lawyers clashed with journalists and Mr Morsi’s fellow defendants chanted against the army that ousted them from power.

With the defendants this time enclosed in a soundproof cage fitted with a microphone controlled by the judge, Mr Morsi had limited opportunity to question the authority of the court. At one point, he yelled at the judge, “Who are you?”, while his fellow accused chanted “illegitimate”, in reference to the validity of the court proceedings. But unlike in the first trial, Mr Morsi was not able to continually state that he remained Egypt’s president.

His allies deny the accusations levelled at him and his colleagues. They point out that the Brotherhood leaders, most of whom had been arrested only days earlier, had left jail along with 20,000 other prisoners after prison guards left their positions en masse amid the chaos of the revolution in early 2011.

They also question why Mr Morsi was not charged with collaborating with foreign groups before he was allowed to run for president.

Well groomed
State television broadcast clips of the trial that depicted the defendants as broken men. Mr Morsi wore the white tracksuit allocated to all Egyptian prisoners, rather than the dark suit he was allowed to wear in November. He was the sole defendant to appear well groomed, with the others in the dock looking haggard, and with scruffy beards. Some have been on hunger strike.

Across the city, the anti-police violence that has blighted Cairo in the past few days continued, with two men on a motorcycle shooting dead Gen Mohamed Saeed.

Militants have waged an insurgency in the Sinai peninsular since Mr Morsi was ousted, killing more than 100 police officers and soldiers.

One militant group says the attacks are revenge for the state's crackdown on Islamist protesters. Now the insurgency appears to have spread to Cairo. – (Guardian service)