Deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and 35 others will be tried on charges of espionage and aiding acts of terrorism, state prosecutors said Wednesday in the latest blow dealt by military-backed authorities to the former leader and his associates in the Muslim Brotherhood after a coup in the summer.
In a statement, Egypt's prosecutor general accused Morsi and his top aides of sharing state secrets with Iran, with which Cairo has no diplomatic relations, and of spying on Egypt for the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah.
The charges alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood, in collaboration with Sunni jihadists trained by Iran's Shiite government, plotted during Egypt's 2011 uprising to plunge the country into chaos and then seize and keep power. The charge sheet called it "the biggest conspiracy in the nation's history."