Egypt’s top prosecutor says he has referred deposed President Mohammed Morsi for trial on charges of inciting the murder of protesters.
The state news agency reported on Sept. 1 that Morsi and 14 other Muslim Brotherhood members were referred to a Cairo criminal court on charges of committing acts of violence and inciting killing, Radio Free Europe reports.
No date was announced for the start of the trial.
The accusations relate to deadly clashes between Morsi’s supporters and opponents in December 2012. Prosecutors have also accused him of conspiring with foreign groups to break out of prison in 2011, the report said.
Morsi has been held incommunicado since his ouster by the army on July 3 amid popular protests.
Egypt moves closer to Al-Jazeera TV affiliate ban
Meanwhile, Egypt’s interim government called an Al-Jazeera local affiliate that broadcasts in Arabic a national threat on Thursday. Officials are moving closer to banning the broadcasts, beamed from Qatar, after the affiliate aired recordings of declarations by fugitive leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Qatar-based television network said four journalists working for its English service were arrested in Cairo, according to the Boston Herald.
Three government ministers issued a statement saying that Al-Jazeera Mubashir Misr is operating “illegally, in violation to the profession’s standards and without a permit to work in Egypt,” the state-run news agency MENA reported.
The ministers also said the channel used satellite transmission without a license and spread “rumors and claims which are harmful to Egyptian national security and threaten the country’s unity,” without referring specifically to the broadcasts of the fugitives’ declarations.
Unnamed government agencies have been ordered to close the network, the statement said.
