Court to reach verdicts in Morsi espionage, jailbreak cases Saturday

Cairo Criminal Court will issue in its Saturday session rulings in two trials in which ousted president Mohamed Morsi is standing on charges of espionage and jailbreak.

Morsi and his co-defendants face espionage charges and are accused of leaking classified information to the Qatari Intelligence and the Doha-based Aljazeera TV news channel about the national security and the Armed Forces with the aim of harming Egypt's army and national interests.

Among the defendants are the former head of Morsi's office, Ahmed Abdel Aatti, and secretary Ameen el Serafi, along with figures from Aljazeera news network and the Muslim Brotherhood's Misr 25 satellite channel.

The classified documents included information on military positions and armament, as well as additional information on the country's general policies.

Those documents had been sent by the general and military intelligence, the Armed Forces, the Interior Ministry's National Security and Administrative Monitoring Authority to the presidency.

Morsi is also being tried in connection with jailbreak charges.

He had been detained in Wadi el Natrun Prison and was one of many inmates breaking out of jail in the wake of the January 25 Revolution.

Morsi's co-defendants in the case include Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and group leaders Safwat Hegazy, Saad el Katatni, Mohamed el Beltagy and Essam el Erian.

The defendants are also accused of damaging and setting fire to prison buildings, murder, attempted murder, and looting weapons at three separate Egyptian prisons.

They face charges of freeing “dangerous criminals” including members of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and Jihadists.

As many as 27 defendants are held while the others are at large.