The ousted Islamist president Mohammad Morsi looked defiant as he stood for a new trial on January 28 in the case of organising the jailbreak of thousands of inmates, including himself and senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders, during the chaotic early days of the January 25 Revolution three years ago. Morsi stood alone in a glass-encased metal cage wearing a white prison uniform, pacing and shouting angrily at the judge in apparent disbelief: "Who are you? Tell me!" Morsi faces multiple trials with a catalogue of charges most of them carry the death penalty if convicted. In his second trial, he and 130 co-defendants are accused of collaborating with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah to escape from Wadi al-Natrun prison on January 28 2011, as well as murdering police officers. The co-defendants include senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders Saad al-Katatni, Essam al-Eryan, Muhammad al-Biltaji, and Safwat Hijazi. A number of Hamas and Hezbollah members were also named among the defendants in the case. Only 22 defendants, including Morsi, appeared in today's trial, while the remaining defendants were tried in absentia. The trial was held at the Police Academy in the eastern New Cairo district amid tight security. Morsi was transferred by helicopter from Burg al-Arab prison in Alexandria to the trial venue. Egyptian state TV broadcast recorded and edited scenes from the trial. At one point, journalists were given the chance to hear what was going on in the soundproof glass cage. Morsi, ousted by the military on July 3, 2013, after mass protests against his single year in power, told the judges that he remains the country's legitimate president during an unaired portion of the hearing. In the aired footage, defendants chanted that their trial was "invalid". Earlier, the defendants turned their back to the judge to protest their prosecution. Morsi protested being in a cage for his trial, raising his hands in the air and angrily questioning why he was in the court. "Do you know where I am?" Morsi shouted at chief judge Sha'ban al-Shami, who responded: "I am the head of Egypt's criminal court." Morsi kept pacing in a metal cell separated from other defendants. The official news agency MENA reported that Morsi was allowed to speak for 10 minutes in the second part of the hearing. "As a legitimate president of Egypt, I should be tried before a special court as stated in the approved 2012 constitution," Morsi told the court. "This trial is absolutely invalid because it violates the 2012 constitution," he said. Addressing the sitting judge, Morsi said that he authorized Mohammad Salim al-Awwa, a veteran lawyer, to submit a memo to the court on his behalf. The memo is about the court's jurisdiction in this case, Morsi said. "I have been arrested and held by force since July 3," Morsi said, describing what happened then as "a military coup" and insisting "I am still the legitimate president". He said judges investigating the case and prosecutors had visited him without his consent. "I respect and appreciate judges and prosecutors and they should not be part of the military coup." It was the second time Morsi appeared in court since his overthrow. At his first appearance on November 4, 2013, Morsi wore a trim, dark suit and appeared far less agitated, though he interrupted the judge and gave long speeches about his catchphrase now ‘legitimacy.' At the time, he had emerged from a four months detention in an undisclosed location. Morsi's November trial was for separate charges of inciting murder and violence during clashes between his supporters and opponents at Al-Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012. This time, authorities apparently resorted to the glass-encased cage to muffle the defendants' outpourings, which disrupted the previous hearing. Prosecutors in the case demanded the maximum penalty for the defendants. "These acts were committed with the terrorist aim of terrifying the public and spreading chaos," a prosecutor addressed the court. He said Morsi and other leading Brotherhood members plotted with foreign groups to "undermine the Egyptian state and its institutions". The trial was later adjourned to February 22. It comes amid security turmoil, as head of the technical office of the Interior Ministry General Muhammad Sa'id was shot dead in Cairo on his way to work. Elsewhere in the capital, a policeman guarding a church was killed and two others were wounded by unidentified gunmen in another drive-by shooting. Attacks by suspected Islamist militants on security services have intensified since Morsi's ouster in July with hundreds of police and military personnel killed and injured.
