Khaled Desouki / AFP - Getty Images
Supporters of Egypt's deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi (portrait) gather outside the police academy in Cairo on Monday.
By Yasmine Saleh and Yara Bayoumy, Reuters
CAIRO - Ousted Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi struck a defiant tone on the first day of his trial on Monday, chanting "down with military rule," and calling himself the country's only "legitimate" president.
Morsi, an Islamist who was toppled by the army in July after mass protests against him, appeared angry and interrupted the session repeatedly, prompting a judge to adjourn the case.
Opponents of Egypt's army-backed government say the trial is part of a campaign to crush Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement and revive a police state.
It is the second time in just over two years that an overthrown president has been in court in Egypt.
The trial is not being aired on state television and journalists were barred from bringing their telephones into the courtroom set up in a Cairo police academy.
Secretary of State John Kerry visited Egypt amid worries violence could break out at the former president Mohammed Morsi's trial.
Dressed in a blue suit and held in a cage, Morsi made a Brotherhood hand gesture to express his disgust at a crackdown on a protest camp that was razed by security forces in August.
"This trial is illegitimate," said Morsi, prompting the judge to adjourn the session.
The now-banned Muslim Brotherhood has said it will not abandon the street protests it has staged to pressure the army to reinstate him.
But a heavy security presence across the country served as a reminder of a crackdown in which hundreds of Mursi supporters were killed and thousands more rounded up.
The uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011 had raised hopes that Egypt would embrace democracy and human rights and eventually enjoy economic prosperity.
Instead, the power struggle between the Brotherhood and the army-backed government has created more uncertainty in the U.S.-allied country of 85 million, which has a peace treaty with Israel and controls the Suez Canal, a vital global trade route.
Morsi and 14 other Islamists face charges of inciting violence relating to the deaths of about a dozen people in clashes outside the presidential palace in December after Morsi enraged his opponents with a decree expanding his powers.
The defendants could face a life sentence or the death penalty if found guilty.
Virginie Nguyen Hoang / AFP - Getty Images
Security forces backed by bulldozers forcefully closed pro-Morsi sit-ins, setting off clashes that killed hundreds of people.
Morsi traveled to the heavily guarded courthouse from an undisclosed location by helicopter, state media said. The trial is taking place in the same venue where Mubarak has also been facing trial for complicity in killing protesters.
Hundreds of Morsi supporters gathered outside the building to pledge their support for him. One sign read "The will of the people has been raped," a reference to the army takeover.
Tahrir Square, where Egyptian protesters had gathered during the uprising against Mubarak, and later Morsi, was sealed off by army personnel carriers and barbed wire.
The Brotherhood had won every election since Mubarak's fall and eventually propelled Morsi into power after the Islamist movement endured repression under one dictator after another.
But millions of Egyptians who grew disillusioned with Morsi's troubled one-year rule took to the streets this summer to demand his resignation. They accused Morsi of usurping power and mismanaging the economy, allegations he denied.
The army, saying it was responding to the will of the people, deposed Morsi and announced a political road map it said would lead to free and fair elections.
But the promises have not reassured Egypt's Western allies, who had hoped the military men's grip on power would be broken.
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This story was originally published on Mon Nov 4, 2013 3:48 AM EST
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