Egypt braces for bloodshed as Morsi trial starts

Egypt braced for bloodshed Monday as Mohamed Morsi backers vowed protests and the regime stationed 20,000 troops as the ousted Islamist president goes on trial. "The heroic Egyptian people will not let go of their freedom, dignity and values and ... will march on the absurd and unjust trial," the Muslim Brotherhood said as it vowed mass rallies, including outside the heavily fortified Police Academy in the eastern New Cairo suburb where predecessor ousted President Hosni Mubarak, toppled in a 2011 uprising, is also being tried. The Interior Ministry has said the 20,000 security personnel deployed to secure the trial and other state institutions would take all ''security measures to prevent possible attacks, in accordance with the law." Morsi's murder trial, to start at 10 a.m. (3 a.m. EST), will be the first public appearance by Egypt's first democratically elected head of state since he was ousted by the military in a popularly supported July 3 overthrow. The trial will not be broadcast live like Mubarak's trial, appeals court Judge Medhat Idris told reporters Sunday. Morsi, under house arrest at an undisclosed location since being overthrown, faces charges of inciting the killing of three of 11 peaceful protesters in what became violent clashes at the presidential Heliopolis Palace in December. The dead were among tens of thousands who rallied outside the palace gates to protest Morsi's decree granting himself unchecked power to help push through a new Constitution written by Islamists. Fourteen other Islamist leaders also face trial on the same criminal charges of "incitement to murder and violence" during the sit-ins outside the palace. Morsi has rejected the trial, defense lawyer Mohamed al-Damati told al-Jazeera. He still considers himself Egypt's legitimate president and has refused to answer questions during judicial interrogations, considering them "invalid," al-Damati said. The 10-member defense team, which has had no pre-trial access to Morsi, received court papers only Saturday night, even though it requested them more than 20 days ago, al-Damati told The Financial Times. "We will ask for a delay and to sit with the president to find out his point of view," al-Damati told the newspaper. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in Cairo Sunday he saw "indications" Egypt was moving back to democracy. "The road map is being carried out to the best of our perception," Kerry said, referring to the military-led government's plan to hold a national referendum on an amended Constitution and have parliamentary and presidential elections by in the spring. "There are questions we have here and there about one thing or another," Kerry added in a joint news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy. "I think it's important for all of us, until proven otherwise, to accept that this is the track Egypt is on and to work to help it to be able to achieve that," he said. Kerry played down the Obama administration's October decision to suspended the delivery of major weapons systems and withhold $260 million in support for the Egyptian budget. That was not "punishment" for Morsi's overthrow but rather "a reflection of policy in the United States under our law," he said.