Civil rights lawyers request Sisi testify in Morsi trial

Civil rights lawyers working on the case in which President Mohamed Morsi is accused of inciting violence against protesters outside Ettehadiya Presidential Palace in 2012 requested that Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi testify, privately owned Al-Shorouk reported.

Following a court hearing on Wednesday, the case against Morsi and 14 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders was adjourned to March 1. The Cairo Criminal Court announced that the postponement is in order to give a committee time to inspect video footage of events.

The defendants are charged with organizing and perpetrating an attack on protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012, which escalated into violent clashes that led to at least seven deaths.

The former president is accused of inciting murder, using violence and being responsible for the detention and torture of peaceful protestors.

According to Al-Shorouk, the civil rights lawyer requested that Sisi testify about a phone call that took place between him and the deposed president during the December events.

At the time, Morsi had recently appointed Sisi as defense minister in an invasive reshuffle of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, retiring former Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and former Chief of Staff Sami Anan.

Despite their confinement in a sound-proofed glass box, the defendants were still able to express themselves by raising the four-finger symbol — associated with the violent dispersal of Rabea in August 2013 — and turning their backs to the court at the start of the session, as reported by Al-Shorouk.

The court decided to confine Morsi to a soundproof box during the trials after his outburst during a session on January 28 in another criminal case, when he yelled at the judge, asking him, “Who are you?” and “Do you know who I am?”

The court postponed the testimonies of three witnesses from the presidential guard who were summoned to testify in Wednesday's session.