Morsi arrives for trial over Egypt jailbreak
Egypt's toppled president, Mohamed Morsi, has arrived in Cairo for a trial over prison breaks in 2011, according to the state news agency.
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The MENA agency report on Tuesday said Morsi flew by helicopter from Borg al-Arab prison in Alexandria, while some 130 others were driven to Cairo.
The trial opens the day after General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who led the army's removal of Morsi last year, was cleared by the military to run for the presidency later this year.
The case is rooted in the 2011 escape of more than 20,000 inmates from Egyptian prisons - including Morsi. Also charged are members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Morsi was accused, just before his removal by the army last year, of colluding with "foreign forces" to allow him to break out of a high-security prison near Cairo.
He was being held in custody after a roundup of Muslim Brotherhood supporters during the uprising against the regime of Hosni Mubarak.
A lawyer has said the trial appears aimed at "denigrating" Morsi and his Brotherhood group.
It is Morsi's second court appearance since Egypt's popularly backed July 3 military coup. He missed a January 8 hearing in another trial after security officials said bad weather grounded a helicopter meant to bring him.
General assassinated
Gunmen killed a senior Egyptian Interior Ministry official outside his home in Cairo on Tuesday, security officials said.
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"General Mohamed Saeed, head of the technical office of the minister of interior, was targeted by gunmen inside a car who shot him and fled," one of the officials told the Reuters news agency.
The general was an aide to Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, who survived an assassination attempt last year.
There have been an upswing in attacks on security targets in the last week Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a group based in the Sinai Peninsula, said it carried out bombings that rocked Cairo during the thrid anniversary of the uprsising against Hosni Mubarak.
Ansar said that the attacks were in response to suppression of Morsi's supporters and the Brotherhood.