The Cairo Criminal Court adjourned Monday the trial of former president Mohamed Morsi and 10 others in the “Qatar espionage” case to a 27 August session, to resume listening to witnesses.
The court scheduled sessions to listen to witnesses between next Thursday and a 10 September session. The list of witnesses includes former head of the president’s office Mostafa Tala’at, former minister of interior Mohamed Ibrahim, and former chief of the Republican Guard Mohamed Zaki, according to state-run newspaper Al-Ahram.
The defendants are accused of leaking important national security documents and information on the Egyptian army to Qatar during Morsi’s year-long tenure in office, between June 2012 and June 2013.
In September 2014, late prosecutor general Hisham Barakat referred the defendants to the criminal court on charges of illegally obtaining copies of intelligence reports, and confidential reports on the armed forces plans. They were also accused ofintending to deliver the documents to the Qatari satellite network, Al Jazeera.
Alongside Morsi in the case are his secretary, office manager, a documentary film producer, a producer at pro-Muslim Brotherhood channel Misr25, an EgyptAir flight attendant, a university assistant, and a student who has been named as Karima Al-Serafy.
Those on trial in absentia include a reporter at Rassd News Network, a Jordanian programme executive at Al Jazeera, and the head of the network’s news sector.
Authorities’ investigations state that Morsi took advantage of his position to appoint employees at his office. It is also alleged that, as popular tensions and opposition to his rule increased, the international Muslim Brotherhood organisation asked him to leak the documents.
