(AFP PHOTO/MAHMOUD KHALED)
The fourth hearing of ousted president Mohamed Morsi’s “presidential palace” trial was postponed on Tuesday to the following day.
The fourth hearing in the trial, which continued to be held under heavy security at the Police Academy, adjourned on Tuesday afternoon to prepare witnesses for the defence in the coming session, according to state-owned Al-Ahram.
Plaintiffs in the case also requested to add prominent Brotherhood leaders to the defence, including Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Saad Al-Katatny, Mahmoud Ghozlan and Mohamed Al-Tahtawy.
Al-Ahram also reported that the defence called for former National Salvation Front (NSF) general coordinator Mohamed ElBaradei, and former presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabahy and Amr Moussa to be added to the case. The defence had made the same request in the trial’s previous hearing.
The current defence, consisting of 15 Brotherhood and FJP members and Islamist figures, in the case includes Morsi, Deputy FJP Chairman Essam El-Erian, senior party member Mohamed Al-Beltagy, and ultraconservative preacher Wagdi Ghoneim.
Outside the police academy on Tuesday, supporters of Minister of Defence Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi held up his image and chanted against the Brotherhood, which has suffered a severe crackdown since Morsi’s ouster led by the army chief.
The former president is currently being charged in four separate trials, including one for insulting the judiciary, one for the 2011 Wadi Al-Natrun prison break, and another for espionage.
Tuesday’s hearing, in which Morsi and 14 defendants are charged with “inciting to kill protesters”, relates to deadly clashes that took place outside the presidential palace in Heliopolis in December 2012.
The Muslim Brotherhood previously vehemently denied any responsibility for the outbreak of violence, issuing a statement in which they considered it part of a conspiracy against the Islamist group and the 25 January Revolution.
