Former president Mohamed Morsy has demanded testimony by former army leaders in the trial in which he is facing, along with 34 others, charges of espionage.
Morsy asked judges at the Cairo Criminal Court to summon former defense minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawy, former chief of staff Sami Anan and president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a closed session.
Tantawy and Anan were members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that led the transitional period following the removal of former president Hosni Mubarak till the election of Morsy who removed the pair in 2012.
“Issues of national security should not be open to the public,” Morsy told the judges, noting that he would speak in that session about accusations against defendants of collaborating with Palestinian faction Hamas to train terrorists on operations in Egypt.
During the session on Saturday, Montasser al-Zayyat, defense lawyer for Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, challenged the validity of evidence provided by prosecutors. “All state bodies failed to collect evidence against former president Hosni Mubarak… but the same bodies tried to collect every evidence possible to convict Mohamed Morsy,” Zayyat said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
