The Cairo Criminal Court, headed by Judge Sherien Fahmy, postponed to Monday the trial of former president Mohamed Morsi and 10 others in the “Qatar espionage” case.
The defendants are accused of leaking important national security documents and information on the Egyptian army to the Qataris during Morsi’s year-long tenure in office between June 2012 and June 2013.
According to state-run news agency MENA, Morsi was examined by a medical specialist from Cairo University, who is to provide a report on his health condition via the prosecution authorities. Morsi’s defence team was also allowed to see him, despite their previously being prevented from doing so.
“The media published some records regarding my sugar levels, reporting they were the results of a checkup before the session of 22 July, but they were from another session and were incorrect,” Morsi told the court.
Morsi had made controversial statements regarding “receiving poisoned food from prison authorities” saying a “crime would have happened against me if I had eaten [it]”. On Sunday, he told the court he was not allowed to receive food from outside prison.
Morsi, who has diabetes, demanded more medical care or his transfer to a medical facility, saying he fears “eating unsafe food in jail”.
According to a National Security officer who was questioned in court, he had been responsible for the arrest of four defendants in the case. The officer said that important national security documents were found in their possession and that they had admitted their ownership.
The defendants were apparently planning on smuggling those documents outside Egypt, as they had been coordinating with Morsi’s advisor Amin Al-Serafy and his detained daughter Karima.
A second national security officer said he had arrested the latter, and found some documents “of which he does not remember the content”, as reported by MENA.
In September 2014, former prosecutor general Hisham Barakat referred the defendants to criminal court on charges of illegally obtaining copies of reports of the intelligence services, and confidential reports on the armed forces plans, and intending to deliver those to the Qatari Al Jazeera network.
Along with Morsi in the case, there is his secretary, office manager, a documentary film producer, a producer at pro-MB channel Misr 25, an Egyptair flight attendant, a university assistant, in addition to student Karima Al-Serafy.
Those on trial in absentia include a reporter at RASSD, a Jordanian programme maker at Al Jazeera, and the head of the news sector at the network.
Authorities’ investigations state that Morsi took advantage of his position to appoint employees at his office. As popular tensions and opposition to his rule increased, the international Muslim Brotherhood organisation asked him to leak the documents.
Al-Serafy and his daughter were able to carry those documents outside the presidential office and deliver it to others, who went to Qatar and met with Al Jazeera news directors and a Qatari intelligence services officer.
The prosecution accused them all of conspiracy after claiming evidence showed that the documents have been indeed delivered to the Qatari side in exchange for $ 1m.
