Former president Mohamed Morsi and 25 other prominent politicians and public figures were referred to court on Sunday on charges of "insulting the judiciary and its men," according to state-owned MENA. The list of defendants includes a number of Muslim Brotherhood leaders including former supreme guide of the group Mahdi Akef, Chairman of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party Saad Al-Katatny, senior member Mohamed Al-Beltagy, and Muslim Brotherhood lawyers Ahmed Abou Baraka and Sobhi Saleh. Other Islamists including Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya member Assem Abdel Maged, Al-Wasat Party member Mohamed Mahsoub, ultraconservative preacher Wagdy Ghoneim and Noha Othman Al-Zeiny. Former judge Mahmoud Al-Khodeiry and lawyers Mohamed Moneib Ginidy, Mansour Al-Zayat, Amir Hamdy Salem and Hamdy Al-Fakrany are also included in the case. Politicians are also implicated in the case, which includes former lawmakers Amr Hamzawy, Mostafa Al-Naggar, Mahmoud Al-Saqqa, Al-Wasat Party chairman Essam Sultan and Mamdouh Ismail. The case also involves media personalities and journalists, including Abdel Halim Qandil, former Misr 25 presenter Nour El-Din Abdel Hafez, Ahmed Hassan Al-Sharqawy, owner Abdel Rahman Al-Qaradawy and presenter of Faraeen satellite channel Tawfik Okasha. Prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who is already detained on trial for allegedly violating the controversial new Protest Law, is also a defendant in the case. A number of those involved in the case are already detained pending trial or investigations for other cases, while some, including Abdel Maged and Ghoneim, are currently not in Egypt.
