Cairo court suspends Morsi conspiracy trial

A court in Egypt has suspended the trial of ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, and some top Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

The Cairo Criminal Court on Thursday decided to suspend the trial after the defense lawyers for Morsi and his co-defendants demanded that a panel of judges overseeing the trial be changed.

No date was set for the trial to start.

Morsi and 35 others are on trial over accusations that they conspired with foreign groups to undermine Egypt’s national security.

The ousted leader has rejected the charges and has described himself as the legitimate president of Egypt.

Egyptian protesters have staged many demonstrations over the past months to denounce what they call the comic trial of their elected president.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected head of state, was toppled after just one year in power by the military on July 3, 2013.

The army also suspended the constitution, dissolved the parliament and appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mahmoud Mansour, as interim president.

Egypt then turned into the scene of protests, led by Muslim Brotherhood, for his reinstatement on an almost daily basis.

The army-installed interim government soon launched a bloody crackdown on Morsi’s supporters and arrested thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members, including the party’s senior leaders.