Egypt’s Morsi, Brotherhood members due in court again

Egypt’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, and dozens of other Muslim Brotherhood members are due to appear before court on charges of espionage and conspiracy.

Morsi and the 35 Brotherhood members are accused of “spying for the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood, its military wing and the (Palestinian) Hamas movement.”

They are also accused of attempting to carry out terrorist operations to “create chaos to bring down the Egyptian state and its institutions.”

Under Egyptian law, the accused could face the death penalty if found guilty.

The Sunday trial is one of four separate trials Morsi is facing on various charges, including one over his role in inciting the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012, and planning prison break during the 2011 revolution.

Morsi rejects all the charges and says he is the legitimate president of Egypt.

Human rights groups have dismissed some of the allegations against Morsi and Brotherhood members as preposterous.

Egypt has been experiencing unrelenting violence since July 3, 2013, when the army ousted the country’s first democratically-elected president, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the parliament. It also appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mahmoud Mansour, as the interim president.

The interim government has been cracking down on the Brotherhood by banning the group. Thousands of its members have been also arrested.

Amnesty International has slammed Egyptian authorities for using an “unprecedented scale” of violence against protesters and dealing “a series of damaging blows to human rights.”

Amnesty says 1,400 people have been killed in the political violence since July 2013, “most of them due to excessive force used by security forces.”