Morsi jailbreak trial adjourned to 21 September

Ahram Online, Monday 15 Sep 2014

Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and 130 others are on trial for breaking out of prisons in the early days of the January 2011 uprising

Morsi
File Photo: Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi stands inside a glassed-in defendant's cage during his trial on charges related to the prison breaks at the height of the 18-day 2011 uprising against his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, Jan 28,2014 (Photo: AP)

Cairo Criminal Court adjourned on Monday the jailbreak trial of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and 130 others to 21 September.

Prosecutors accuse the defendants of damaging and setting fire to prison buildings, murder, attempted murder and looting prison weapons depots, while helping prisoners from Gaza's Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, along with jihadists, Brotherhood members and other criminals, to break out of jails.

The charges are linked to the escape of inmates from a number of prisons in the early days of the January 2011 uprising. These include Morsi, who reportedly escaped from Wadi El-Natroun prison.

The court heard on Sunday witness Major General Magdi Moussa, who was prison warden of Abu Zaabal prison from which a number of the defendants escaped. He said chaos broke out in the prison on the morning of 29 January 2011 when some prisoners broke their cell doors and attacked prison security personnel who were "not enough" to repel the chaos.  

Twenty-two defendants are detained pending trial while the rest are being tried in absentia.

Morsi, and a number of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, also face a number of other charges in separate trials.

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