Egyptian court adjourns Morsi's espionage trial

Cairo: A court in Egypt Sunday adjourned the trial of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and 10 Muslim Brotherhood defendants over espionage charges, media reports said.

Morsi and the other defendants face charges of leaking clandestine security and military information to the Qatari Intelligence and Doha-based Al Jazeera news channel, MENA news agency reported.

The trial in the Cairo Criminal Court would resume Feb 28, to enable the defence to review the case documents, according to Xinhua.

Sunday's trial was the first of its kind of the espionage case. Head of Morsi's office, Ahmed Abdel Aatti, and secretary Ameen al Serafi are among the defendants.

The classified documents included information on military positions and armaments, as well as additional information on the government policies.

These documents were sent from intelligence agencies and interior ministry to then president Morsi.

Morsi, ousted by the army in July 2013 after mass protests against his one-year presidency, faces three other trials for inciting the killing protesters during his rule, conspiring with foreign groups including Palestinian Hamas movement and a jailbreak during the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Qatar and Al-Jazeera channel have been key backers of Morsi and his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, causing strains with Egypt' s new administration.