Deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsy will face trial in a criminal court for committing and inciting violence, state-run television has reported without giving a date for the hearing.
Public prosecutor Hesham Barakat referred 62-year-old Mr. Morsy and 14 other Muslim Brotherhood members to a criminal court here on charges “of committing acts of violence, and inciting the killing” in December 2012, it said on Sunday night.
In December, deadly clashes broke out between Brotherhood supporters and opponents outside the presidential palace here during a protest against a presidential decree that expanded Mr. Morsy’s powers and an Islamist-drafted constitution.
Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, Mr. Morsy was ousted by the Army on July 3, after mass protests against him on the anniversary of his election.
Since then Mr. Morsy is being held at an undisclosed location on allegations of murder and spying, besides collaborating with Palestinian group Hamas.
A Cairo court last month ordered the renewal of Mr. Morsy’s detention for 30 days pending investigations into his alleged collaboration with Hamas in prison breaks in early 2011, during the uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak.
Many Islamist leaders, including Mr. Morsy, escaped during the prison breaks.
The co-defendants in the trial include senior Brotherhood figures Mohamed al-Beltagi and leaders such as Essam el-Erian, deputy head of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political wing.
