Egyptian court extends detention of ousted president Mohamed Morsi

CAIRO — A court on Monday extended the detention of Egypt’s deposed president Mohamed Morsi for 30 days while prosecutors investigate charges stemming from a 2011 prison break by the Islamist leader and other members of his Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Egypt’s military-backed interim government has launched a wide-ranging probe into the Brotherhood’s involvement in deadly violence during the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak and during Morsi’s one-year rule.

Morsi, who has been in custody since a July 3 military coup, appeared in court last week alongside 14 other Brotherhood figures on charges of incitement to murder stemming from clashes outside the presidential palace late last year.

He and four others are also accused in a separate case of conspiring with the Palestinian militant group Hamas to attack police stations and jails, including one where Morsi was being held in 2011. The charges include premeditated murder, arson, destroying prison records and resisting authority, according to a statement issued by the office of investigative judge Hassan Samir.

Samir visited Morsi at Borg al-Arab prison, outside the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, to question him before ordering his continued detention, the statement said. Morsi refused to have a lawyer present and maintained that he is still the “country’s legitimately elected president,” it said.

Egypt mediated several rounds of talks between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah under Morsi’s government, raising questions about the extent of the Brotherhood’s ties to a group that is regarded by the U.S. and other Western countries as a terrorist organization.

Relations between Egypt and Hamas soured when the group rejected the coup that removed Morsi from office and supported calls for his reinstatement.

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Hassieb is a special correspondent.