CAIRO, Nov 15 (Aswat Masriya) – The Cairo Criminal Court postponed on Saturday the trial of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and 35 other defendants accused of espionage to November 18.

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."

The prosecution's hearing is expected during the next session.

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 advisers. 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 January 25 uprising in 2011.

Mursi, two of his aides and eight others were referred to trial on September 7 over new espionage charges which involve leaking classified national intelligence to the Qatari intelligence.

The prosecutor general's office said Mursi, the head of his presidential office Ahmed Abdelatti and his personal secretary  Amin al-Srifi leaked the intelligence with the help of eight "spies" and in exchange for a million dollars, adding that they were carrying out the instructions of the "terrorist" Muslim Brotherhood international organisation.