Ousted president Mohamed Morsi (Photo:AP)
Cairo Appeals Court adjourned Saturday the case against ousted president Mohamed Morsi and 35 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders on charges of espionage, after the defendants failed to appear in court.
Defendants, including Morsi, were facing another trial the same day in which they are accused of inciting the murder and torture of opposition protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012.
The espionage case was suspended last week by Cairo Criminal Court to allow Cairo Appeals Court to look into defence lawyer demands that trial judges be changed on the basis of claimed faults in trial procedures.
Lawyers representing Safwat Hegazy and Mohamed El-Beltagy, who said they represent all defendants in the case, made the request that the judges in the case be changed.
Morsi and the 35 other Brotherhood leading figures stand accused of collaborating with foreign organisations, namely "Hamas in Gaza," to commit acts of terrorism in Egypt, of revealing defence secrets to a foreign country, funding terrorists and organising militant training "to achieve the purpose of the international organisation of the Brotherhood," according to a statement from the prosecution.
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