CAIRO (AA) – Ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and other defendants on Monday morning arrived at the Police Academy in eastern Cairo where they will stand trial, a high-ranking police official confirmed.
Assistant Interior Minister Osama al-Sagheir said the defendants' arrival would allow the trial's first session to begin.
Morsi was flown to the trial venue by helicopter from the undisclosed location at which he has been held since his July 3 ouster by the military.
At his Monday trial, Morsi will make his first public appearance since his ouster to answer charges that he had incited the killing of demonstrators outside Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace late last year when he was president.
Fourteen other defendants, including Muslim Brotherhood members and ex-presidency officials, were transported to the Police Academy in armored vehicles from Cairo's Tora Prison, al-Sagheir said.
He noted that the streets between the prison and Police Academy had been closed during the transfer of the prisoners.
Police have erected barricades around the courthouse to prevent Morsi supporters from reaching the site, turning the Police Academy – which had also served as the trial venue for toppled president Hosni Mubarak – into a police barracks, according to one Anadolu Agency reporter at the scene.
Only lawyers and media personnel with special permits were allowed into the courthouse on Monday.
Mobile phones and laptops, meanwhile, have been barred from the courtroom on order of the presiding judge.
Cars, too, were barred from parking within a two-kilometer radius of the Police Academy, forcing attorneys and media personnel to walk to the trial venue.
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