Mohamed Morsi accuses Egyptian army of role in deaths during 2011 protest

Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi accused the country's army in one of his trials yesterday of killing protesters during the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader who became president in June 2012, alleged in a statement from his metal court cage that the man who overthrew him one year later, then army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, played a role in the violence.

Citing testimony in what he called a fact-finding report, he did not name Sisi, who went on to become elected president. But he said elements belonging to a sovereign body led by the “coup leader” took part in killing protesters.

There was no immediate comment from the army or presidency.

Egypt’s police, not the military, were widely believed to be behind a crackdown against hundreds of thousands of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the revolt that ended Mubarak’s three-decade rule in February 2011.

“The fact-finding mission that I formed had testimonies from hotel managers,” said Morsi. “Some people entered the rooms and then fired from these rooms. They were from a sovereign body led by the coup leader.” – (Reuters)