An alleged five minute phone call leak between Al-Sisi’s office head Abbas Kamel and Prosecution General Hisham Barakat was aired on 24 January suggesting President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s intervention in judiciary.
Kamel told Barakat in the alleged leak about putting deposed former president Mohamed Morsi in a separate glass cage away from other defendants as “he is giving them instructions”.
The recording, which was aired by the pro-Morsi satellite channel Mekamelin, suggested that Kamel was implementing Al-Sisi’s orders; however there was no mention of Al-Sisi during the conversation.
Kamel also said during the phone call that the interior minister had called Al-Sisi to address the issue three times.
By court order, Morsi has been put in a glass cage during all trials he is charged. His lawyers have repeatedly objected to the glass cage.
The glass limits the defendants’ ability to address the court as the judge is the only one allowed to listen to them through a microphone.
The proceedings of several trials were disrupted due to Morsi’s shouts during trials calling for his release and noting that he is Egypt’s “legitimate president”.
The recording included other phone calls; one of them was with an “unidentified” person and the other was with someone called ‘Houda’.
This is not the first leak reported by Mekamelin from Kamel’s office. On 19 January the channel aired a alleged leak suggesting that government officials are using known media figures to shape public opinion.
