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'Coup' destined to fail, Egypt's Morsi tells judge

Morsi and 21 co-defendants attended Wednesday's court session, according to a judicial source, while 14 others are being tried in absentia.

16.04.2014 - Update : 16.04.2014
'Coup' destined to fail, Egypt's Morsi tells judge

CAIRO

Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has reiterated that his overthrow by the army last summer amounted to a "military coup," telling judges at his espionage trial that the "coup" was destined to failure.

"Please give my greetings to the Egyptian people, to whom I pay tribute for their peaceful revolution," Morsi, who appeared in a soundproof glass cage, told the presiding judge in a Wednesday court session.

"I assure the Egyptian people that the coup will eventually fail and its leaders held to account," he said.

Morsi and 21 co-defendants attended Wednesday's court session, according to a judicial source, while 14 others are being tried in absentia.

Trial proceedings were temporarily suspended earlier this year to consider requests by the defense for the recusal of the presiding judges.

Last month, however, the court turned down the request.

Defendants in the case face charges of "conspiring" with Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah to carry out "terrorist acts" inside Egypt.

Morsi and his co-defendants emphatically deny the charges against them, which they describe as politically motivated.

No 'coup' recognition, no bartering blood: Morsi

Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has said he would not recognize last summer's "coup" that unseated him,nor would he "barter" the blood of slain revolutionaries, his son Osama quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

"My father asks the Egyptian people for three things: don't recognize the coup, don't back down on the revolution, and don't barter the blood [of slain revolutionaries]," Osama declared via Facebook.

Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, was forcibly removed from office by the military last July following massive demonstrations against his presidency.

While Morsi's supporters describe his ouster as a "military coup," his critics term it a "military-backed revolution."

Morsi currently faces multiple criminal charges, including incitement to murder, jailbreak and espionage.

On Wednesday, an Egyptian court adjourned until April 22 trial proceedings for Morsi and 35 others accused of espionage.

At Wednesday's court session, Morsi reiterated that his overthrow by the army last summer amounted to a "military coup," going on to tell judges that the "coup" was destined to failure.

Egypt court jails top Islamist Abu Ismail for forgery

An Egyptian court on Wednesday slapped Islamist leader and former presidential hopeful Hazem Salah Abu Ismail with a seven-year jail term for fabricating documents related to his mother's nationality.

The court found him guilty of forging an official document about the nationality of his mother, judicial sources said.

Prosecutors had accused Abu Ismail of submitting documents as part of his presidential election application in 2012 asserting that his mother did not hold U.S.citizenship.

However, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry later presented documents proving that Abu Ismail's mother held U.S. citizenship.

An Egyptian court had earlier jailed Abu Ismail for one year for "offending the judiciary."

Abu Ismail is an outspoken critic of Egypt's army-backed interim authorities. He considers last July's ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi a "military coup.

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