Egypt's Morsi tells court of post-ouster whereabouts

CAIRO – Anadolu Agency

Egypt's ousted leader Mohamed Morsi has unveiled details about his location in the wake of last year's ouster by the military during a court hearing into alleged espionage charges on Dec. 6.

The session comes two days after unverified audio recordings - purportedly for Egyptian officials - were leaked, highlighting discussions on altering the features of a secret location where Morsi was being held in order to fall under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry.

Egypt's attorney general described the leaks as "fabricated" and ordered an investigation into the issue.

According to Egyptian law, a defendant must be held in prisons that fall under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry. If the arrest and detention procedures are invalid, the entire case can be nullified.

During the Dec. 6 hearing, Morsi recalled that he was moved from the Republican Guard headquarters in eastern Cairo to several locations until he reached the Abu Qir naval base in the coastal province of Alexandria, where he was held from July 5 to Nov. 4.

"I heard that the prosecutor in the Ittihadiya case [in which Morsi faces charges of inciting the murder of demonstrators in 2012] saying that the Interior Minister had decided to consider the military base [Abu Qir naval base] as an Interior Ministry prison," Morsi told the presiding judge during the hearing.

"I will not go into further details because I fear for Egypt's national security. But if you want to know the truth, I will reveal it in a closed session in the presence of [president Abdel-Fattah] al-Sisi, [former chief of staff] Sami Anan and [former defense minister] Hussein Tantawi," Morsi said.

Morsi and 35 co-defendants, including leading members of his Muslim Brotherhood group, face charges of "conspiring" with Palestinian resistance group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah to carry out "terrorist acts" inside Egypt.

Morsi and his co-defendants deny all the charges against them, which they insist are politically driven.

Egypt's democratically elected leader, Morsi was ousted by the military last year - after only one year in office - following opposition protests against his presidency.

He currently faces multiple criminal charges, including incitement to murder, jailbreak and "offending Egypt's judiciary."