Amr Nabil/Associated Press
Supporters of Mohamed Morsi gathered outside the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo on Monday as he stood trial for inciting the murder of protesters.
CAIRO — As Egypt's new military-led government consolidates its power, Mohamed Morsi, the deposed president, arrived by helicopter on Monday at a makeshift courtroom where he will stand trial for inciting the murder of protesters.
The trial is scheduled to be Mr. Morsi's first public appearance since his removal from office on July 3. In a dizzying turn for Egypt, it is the second criminal trial of a former head of state in less than three years. Former President Hosni Mubarak, ousted in February 2011 and now under house arrest in a military hospital, is still facing a retrial at the same venue, the auditorium of a police academy.
Mr. Morsi's Islamist allies in the Muslim Brotherhood had called for major protests against the trial, and the interior ministry said it had deployed thousands of riot police to secure the streets. But at 10 a.m., as the trial was scheduled to begin, the streets remained quiet, with only a few dozen of his demonstrators outside the makeshift court.
For the new government installed by Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the trial will be a ritual demonstration of its repeated vows that there is no turning back from the overthrow of Mr. Morsi, or from the cancellation of the Islamist-drafted constitution approved last December in a national referendum. The court proceedings add formal legal legitimacy to Mr. Morsi's incarceration, analysts said, so that it is no longer by military fiat alone.
He is specifically charged with inciting the murder of at least three protesters in a night of street fighting between his supporters and opponents outside the presidential palace last December. But rights advocates say the charges are selective at best.
As increasingly aggressive protesters began encircling the palace the previous night — even throwing Molotov cocktails over its walls — police refused to protect it. So on Dec. 5, leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood publicly called for the president's Islamist supporters to do the job themselves, by force if necessary.
Hundreds of Islamists arrived that afternoon and forcibly evicted a small tent camp the protesters had set up near the palace, and by nightfall thousands of Islamists were gathered to defend it. Then, thousands of Mr. Morsi's opponents began to attack the Islamists and a night of deadly street fighting ensued, with rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunshots coming from both sides.
By morning at least 11 people were dead, including at least eight supporters of the president and at least three non-Islamists, according to news reports. Prosecutors have not charged anyone with responsibility for the Islamists' deaths, and the charges against Mr. Morsi accuse him of inciting the murder of three non-Islamists.
Mr. Morsi's supporters committed other abuses as the night went on, informally detaining and beating a number of his opponents who they had captured in the fight. In the morning, the Islamists sought to turn their detainees over to prosecutors, to charge them with assaulting the presidential palace, but the prosecutors immediately released them. And Mr. Morsi has not been charged in relation to the overnight detentions.
Mr. Morsi has been held incommunicado since his ouster, without access to his lawyer. A legal team preparing to represent him has said that he has spoken at least twice with his family over the telephone. But his supporters have said that they do not recognize the authority of the court, deeming the current military-backed government illegal and illegitimate.
Mr. Mubarak's removal from office, in contrast, was given a figment of legal legitimacy when his vice president, Omar Suleiman, resigned on his behalf. Initially placed under house arrest by the military at his beach house in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Mr. Mubarak was eventually charged with certain specific allegations of corruption as well as with directing security forces in the killing of hundreds of unarmed protesters during the 18-day uprising that ended his rule.
Mr. Mubarak was allowed to consult with a legal team that included Egypt's most prominent defense attorney. He was acquitted of the corruption charges on technical grounds and he now faces a retrial on the charges related to killing protesters. Mr. Mubarak was convicted of those charges in the final weeks of military rule before Mr. Morsi's election, but the judge all but openly stated that he was convicting Mr. Mubarak for political reasons despite scant evidence.
An appellate court ordered a retrial and another judge ordered Mr. Mubarak released from prison. But the new government has kept him under house arrest in a military hospital for unspecified reasons related to public security.
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