The trial of former Egyptian president and Muslim Brotherhood leader opened today in Cairo.
The noticeably upset former president was placed in a sound-proof cage during the proceedings which aired on state television.
Morsi faces the death penalty in trial for prison escape.
Morsi was separated from other defendants for the start of a new trial Tuesday over charges from prison breaks during the country’s 2011 revolution.
Morsi paced back and forth shouting during the proceedings.
CBS News reported:
Egypt’s toppled President Mohammed Morsi appeared at a new trial Tuesday wearing a white prison uniform in soundproof glass-encased metal cage, pacing and shouting angrily at the judge in apparent disbelief: “Who are you? Tell me!”
In a half hour of recorded footage aired on state television, Morsi protested being in a cage for his trial on charges related to prison breaks in 2011, yelling: “Do you know where I am?”
The trial coincides with the third anniversary of one of the most violent days of Egypt’s revolution that year that broke the country’s police force and caused it to abandon patrolling the country’s streets. Morsi supporters, meanwhile, clashed with police Tuesday in central Cairo as gunmen killed an aide to the country’s interior minister.
The former president, ousted in a popularly backed July 3 coup, also declared to the judges that he remains Egypt’s legitimate leader during an un-aired portion of the hearing, a state television reporter inside the courtroom said. In aired footage, defendants chanted that their trial was “invalid.” Earlier, the defendants turned their back to the court to protest their prosecution, the state television journalist said.
Morsi raised his hands in the air and angrily questioned why he was in the court. Judge Shabaan el-Shami responded: “I am the head of Egypt’s criminal court!”
Morsi paced in a metal cell separated from other defendants. Earlier, a promised live feed was cut, something a senior state television official told local media that security forces demanded.
Supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi confront with Egypt’s security forces near Cairo University in Giza, Egypt, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood group and other Islamist groups boycotted the referendum on a new constitution, calling it “illegitimate.” The country’s second-largest Islamist group, the ultraconservative Salafis, have largely stayed away from the polls, apparently in response to a crackdown against Islamists that included confiscation of their assets, shutdown of their TV networks and the banning of their top clerics from preaching in mosques. (AP /Ahmed Omar)
