Deposed Egyptian presidents in court
CAIRO: Two protagonists of Egypt’s recent history faced each other in court on Wednesday, with toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak testifying for the first time against the Muslim Brotherhood’s jailed former president, Mohammed Morsi.
Mubarak, 90, gave evidence at the high-security prison complex in Cairo where Morsi is detained.
Morsi was dressed in prison overalls and seated in a cage.
The hearing was part of a retrial in which Morsi and others are accused of orchestrating prison breaks and breaches of Egypt’s border during the uprising that forced Mubarak from power in 2011.
A visibly frail Mubarak was asked by the judge about security developments as the uprising against his 30-year rule gathered pace. He said he had no information.
Quizzed on alleged infiltration by foreign militants, he said his head of general intelligence had told him on January 29, 2011, of hundreds of people crossing Egypt’s border from the Gaza Strip to support the Brotherhood. “He told me armed groups have infiltrated the borders.”
Mubarak was jailed for six years following the revolution, appearing bed-bound in a courtroom cage and receiving a life prison term for conspiring to kill demonstrators. He was freed after the charges against him were dropped in March last year.
Morsi, elected after the revolution, has been in jail since being overthrown by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, now Egypt’s president. Morsi is serving 45 years on charges arising from the killing of protesters in 2012. |