CAIRO, Aug 17 (Aswat Masriya) – The Cairo Criminal Court will resume on Sunday the trial of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and 35 other defendants accused of espionage.

Mursi and the other defendants are charged with espionage, disclosing state secrets to foreign countries, funding terrorism, conducting military training to serve an international branch of the Brotherhood, and "endangering the independence, unity and safety of the state."

Other defendants in the trial include Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, his deputies Khairat al-Shater and Mahmoud Ezzat, as well as other group leaders and former presidential advisors. Sixteen defendants are being tried in absentia.

The former president, ousted since July 2013, is implicated in a group of other court cases. He is being tried for inciting the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace during his tenure in December 2012, insulting the judiciary, and escaping from the Wadi al-Natroun Prison during the 18-day 25 January uprising in 2011.