On Saturday 22 February ousted president Mohamed Morsi took his place inside the glass box in the courtroom at the Police Academy. He was due to stand trial, together with 130 other defendants facing charges that range from breaking out of jail to storming Wadi Natroun prison in order to release inmates. The hearing was then adjourned to 24 February after the defence team withdrew because of the court's insistence the defendants be placed in glass cages which, the defence claimed, prevented them from hearing the proceedings. Morsi's lawyer Mohamed Selim Al-Awwa also complained the court had failed to investigate leaks of confidential conversations with his client. The case resumed on the allotted day only to be re-adjourned to Saturday, 1 March. Morsi also appeared in the courtroom on Sunday 23 February, this time with 35 Muslim Brotherhood leaders, to face espionage charges. That hearing was adjourned until 27 February, a day after Al-Ahram Weekly goes to press. Sunday's hearing, the second on the espionage charges, opened with the arrival of the defendants who were ushered into the soundproofed glass boxes. The defendants raised their hands in the Muslim Brothers' Rabaa protest gesture. The judge made a roll call of defendants. Morsi refused to reply. The judge then instructed an attorney for the prosecution to read the charges for which the defendants had been referred to the criminal court. The defendants greeted the list with wry smiles. The prosecuting attorney then read out the order referring the defendants to criminal proceedings only to be met with chanting from defendants who called “Invalid! Invalid! The deferral is invalid!” “We have demands. The prosecution and the coup leaders must be prosecuted for these accusations,” shouted Mohamed Al-Beltagui, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood. The defendants then registered their objections to the defence lawyers appointed by the court after their own defence team withdrew during the earlier hearing. In spite of the defendants' complaints the court registered the presence of the lawyers it had appointed together with the two members of the defence team who did not withdraw from the previous session. The two original defence lawyers then told the court that while the accused acknowledged the current session they refused to accept the lawyers appointed by the court. They guaranteed that the defendants would not disrupt the proceedings but also insisted the defendants be allowed to speak to their original lawyers and petitioned the court to suspend the appointees. The courtroom subsequently erupted into loud debate between the original defence members, the court-appointees and the bench over whether the appointees should remain or be dismissed. Following much verbal pushing and shoving the court asked to hear the requests of the appointed defence lawyers. One asked the court to instruct the prosecution to ask the Interior Ministry to supply prison records indicating the date and place of Mohamed Morsi's arrest in January 2011 and the name of his prison warden. He also asked for a statement regarding the nature of the evidence on the basis of which the arrest was made and copies of all relevant documents. He pointed out that the current minister of interior, Mohamed Ibrahim, has already publicly stated there are no documents attesting to the fact that Mohamed Morsi was detained in prison. The new members of the defence team also registered objections to the soundproof glass boxes and asked for them to be removed “to safeguard the reputation of the Egyptian judiciary”, requested a ban on live coverage of the trial and to be granted time to review all documents pertaining to the case. One defence team member also requested confirmation that Morsi was still the legitimate president of Egypt. The court responded that this was a political matter and not within its jurisdiction. Curiously, one of the defence appointees objected to the removal of the glass boxes. “Society is waiting for the ruling on the defendants. The glass box exists in all countries of the world,” he claimed. After hearing the requests of the defence lawyers the court adjourned the trial to 27 February. In last week's session defence lawyers Al-Awwa, Mohamed Al-Damati, Kamel Al-Damati, Kamel Mandour, Nabil Abdel-Salam, Mohamed Touson and others withdrew from the case in protest against the glass cages. The ten lawyers that the court appointed to replace them will most likely ask for more time to study the case and meet with the defendants. Because of the rapid succession of the trials, Morsi is being held temporarily in solitary confinement at Tora Prison in Maadi. After Thursday's hearing he is expected to be returned to Borg Al-Arab Prison in Alexandria. Some observers believe the Muslim Brotherhood's strategy is to obstruct judicial proceedings so that the ousted president can nominate himself in the forthcoming presidential elections. They say that he will argue that he is eligible because he is still facing charges and has yet to be found guilty of anything. Other observers maintain the scenario is pure fantasy.
