The trial of Egypt's ousted president, Mohammed Morsi, began today for his 2011 prison break, and he appeared in a glass cage at the trial, angrily protesting another trial.
"I am the president of the Republic, so how can they keep me locked up for weeks," Morsi asked in a raised tone at the beginning of the trial, as reported by the BBC.
Dressed in a white prison uniform, Morsi, who is in a glass cage with about 20 others accused of escaping from prison in 2011, but is separated from them by a partition, angrily gesticulating and jumping on the cage, asked the judge:
"Who are you, do you know who I am!"
The defendants, who at one point turned their backs on the judge as a sign of protest against the trial, in the glass cage started shouting: "Down with the military authorities", and the judge turned off the sound by pressing a button, AP reported.
Morsi was flown to the court in Cairo by helicopter from prison in Alexandria, Mena news agency reported.
Around the Police Academy in Cairo, where the trial is taking place, security measures have been increased, and supporters of the Chief of the General Staff of the Egyptian Army, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, but not Morsi's supporters, have gathered in front of the building.
Today marks three years since Morsi, along with other defendants, escaped from Wadi al-Natrun prison during the 2011 uprising that ousted then-president Hosni Mubarak, killing some police officers.
Morsi previously stated that local residents had freed the prisoners.
At least 110 more people were charged with breaking out of prison in 2011, but many of them are currently on the run.
Meanwhile, Morsi's supporters clashed with police in central Cairo today after gunmen killed Assistant Interior Minister Gen. Muhammad Said, and it is the latest in a series of attacks on security services.
Citizens and relatives carry the coffin with the body of General Said (photo: Reuters)
General Said was shot just hours after Egypt's military authorities backed Sisi's presidential bid.
Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, was ousted by the army in July last year, following mass protests against his rule.
He now faces four separate criminal trials on different charges.
He appeared in court for the first time in November, in a separate trial on charges that he and 14 other members of the Muslim Brotherhood incited the killing of protesters in clashes outside the presidential palace in December 2012.
At that trial, he shouted slogans against the current government and the court, and also refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court and to wear a prison uniform.
Morsi is also awaiting trial for insulting a judge, as well as a trial on charges of conspiring with foreign organizations to commit "terrorist acts".
To be continued on February 22
The second hearing in Morsi's trial will be held on February 22, the Egyptian state news agency Mena reports.
Mena states that the court decided to postpone the trial until then to allow their lawyers to study the documents related to the case.
The Egyptian prosecution stated that the mass escape from the prison was an organized effort to destabilize the country, because it happened during one of the most violent days during the uprising against Mubarak, the so-called. "Angry Friday", after which the police left the streets and actually disbanded.
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