Egypt sets date of Brotherhood chief trial

An Egyptian court has set December 9 for the Muslim Brotherhood chief and senior officials of the movement to face trial on new incitement charges, judicial sources said on Sunday. Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie and other leaders of the Islamist grouping including Essam al-Erian and Mohammed al-Beltagui face charges of inciting violence in the Cairo neighborhood of Bahr al-Aazam that led to deadly clashes in July. Badie and his two deputies Khairat al-Shater and Rashad Bayoumi in a separate trial already face other charges related to the deaths of protesters who stormed the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters on June 30. In October, the original judges presiding over that case recused themselves, citing "reasons of conscience". The court on Sunday also set December 10 for the trial of former Brotherhood chief Mohammed Mahdi Akef who is accused of insulting the judiciary. The trials are part of a massive crackdown by authorities against the Brotherhood after the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July. Security forces launched a sweeping crackdown on Morsi's supporters in August, violently dispersing two protest camps in the capital. More than 1,000 people have been killed since Morsi's ouster -- mainly his supporters -- and the authorities have arrested some 2,000 Islamists, including most of the Brotherhood's leadership. Morsi himself is on trial over his alleged involvement in the deaths of protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012. At his first hearing on November 4, he rejected the court's legitimacy and demanded that the "military coup" leaders be prosecuted instead. The army ousted Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, on July 3 after millions of people took to the streets to demand his resignation, accusing him of betraying the revolution that brought him to power.