Cairo: Ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and 132 others, including members of Hamas and Hezbollah, will face trial for a prison break and murder of police officers during the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, prosecutors said today.
These are the third set of charges against Morsi, who was ousted by the army in July.
The 62-year-old Muslim Brotherhood leader is facing separate trials for inciting murder of protesters at the presidential palace in December 2012 and for espionage and conspiring with foreign groups to commit terror acts.
Judge Hassan Samir, in a statement titled “The most dangerous terrorism crime the country has ever seen”, accused Morsi and 132 co-defendants of attempted murder and kidnapping of three police personnel and of detaining them in the Gaza Strip in the wake of the January 25 anti-Mubarak protests.
Other charges they face include possession of heavy weapons, committing aggressive acts, vandalising government facilities and looting “livestock, poultry and weapons” from prison warehouses.
The statement accused the international Muslim Brotherhood organisation of plotting a “terrorist plan” in collaboration with Hamas and Hezbollah “to give up part of the Sinai Peninsula for the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza”.
Morsi is already in jail for alleged involvement in the killing of opposition protesters.
His co-defendants include top Muslim Brotherhood leaders with media reports saying 70 of the accused are members of Hamas and Hezbollah who will be tried in absentia.
Some 20,000 inmates escaped from Egypt's prisons during the chaotic 18-day uprising that toppled the nearly three-decade Mubarak regime.
