adminCAIRO — Egypt’s ousted president, Mohammed Morsi, accused the military chief of treason yesterday and said the country won’t be stable until he is returned to office. Morsi’s statement was read at a news conference by a team of lawyers representing his Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. It was his first message addressing the Egyptian public since he was removed from office in a military coup on 3 July and it appeared to be an appeal to his supporters to take to the streets.
“I get my resilience and power from the revolutionaries in the streets,” Morsi’s statement said. “This coup is over…It is falling apart and will fall in the face of the Egyptian people’s resilience.”
Mr Morsi was seen in public last week for the first time since the coup, appearing in court at the start of his trial on murder charges. He is accused of inciting murder during deadly protests against his government in December 2012.
Mr Morsi frequently interrupted the proceedings to insist he was still the legitimate president of Egypt and to declare that he refused to recognise the authority of the court. But his protests went largely unheard because recording devices and cameras were banned inside the courtroom and a brief video later released to the media didn’t have audio.
Mr Morsi accused military chief Abdel-Fattah al Sisi of treason and called for criminal charges against him. Mr al Sisi was Mr Morsi’s choice for defence minister when he was president.
Mr Morsi’s message could energise his base, whose massive protests since his removal have waned in the face of a brutal crackdown by security forces.
Rights groups estimate more than 1 300 civilians have been killed since the July coup by police forces intent on suppressing dissent.
Recently, sustained protests against the coup have been confined to smaller provinces outside of Cairo and at the nation’s universities.
The the military-backed interim-government has moved to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, seize members’ assets and arrest nearly every top official along with hundreds of rank and file members.
Before last week’s court appearance, Mr Morsi had been held virtually incommunicado in secret locations.
He has since told attorneys he hasn’t cooperated with prosecutors and refuses to appoint a lawyer to represent him because he doesn’t recognise the legitimacy of the proceedings against him, maintaining the charges are politically motivated and have no legal basis.
Rights groups have warned that Mr Morsi is being subjected to a show-trial.
Though his trial is being held in Cairo, Mr Morsi is being held in a maximum-security prison near the city of Alexandria on Egypt’s northern coast.
Attorneys sympathetic to the deposed president have met with him and are trying to devise legal strategies to challenge his ouster and the people behind it, they said yesterday.
Mr Morsi has until his next court hearing on 8 January to decide whether he will accept legal representation. Egyptian law doesn’t allow defendants to act as their own counsel. — Wall Street Journal
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