A Judge in the high court of Cairo has suspended the trial of Mohamed Morsi after defendants chanted protest slogans in Cairo and Alexandria.
Egypt’s deposed President, Mohamed Morsi, who is undergoing a trial on charges of incitement of violence and murder has arrived at the police arcade ..
Morsi will face charges along with 14 other Brotherhood figures and allies – including Mohamed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian – in connection with clashes last December outside his Presidential palace that left at least 10 people dead.
His co-defendants were taken to the trial venue from their jail in a suburb south of Cairo in armoured police cars.
The trial is fraught with risks and comes amid a highly charged atmosphere in a bitterly polarised nation, with a deepening rift between Morsi’s Islamist supporters in one hand and Egypt’s security establishment and the nation’s moderate Muslims, secularists, Christians and women on the other.
In a last-minute change, authorities on Sunday switched the trial location, a move apparently aimed at thwarting mass rallies planned by the Muslim Brotherhood, the group to which Morsi belongs.
Police have since arrested at least five pro Morsi supporters outside the courts.
There is currently a massive protest in the capital city of Egypt by pro-Morsi supporters who want the former President to rule outside the courtroom in Cairo.
However Morsi is rejecting the court saying he is still the legitimate President of Egypt.
The Egyptian interior ministry has deployed 20 000 police force members to deal with the ongoing protest.
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