CAIRO, Feb 2 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt's ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi will be facing the Cairo Criminal Court on February 15 in a new trial where he is accused of leaking classified national intelligence to the Qatari intelligence.

Egypt's prosecutor general referred Mursi, two of his aides and eight others to trial on September 6, 2014.

Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat accused Mursi, the head of his presidential office Ahmed Abdel Aati and his personal secretary Amin al-Serafy of seizing classified national security intelligence and delivering them to the Qatari intelligence and the Qatari news network al-Jazeera.

A statement released by the prosecutor general's office last September said the defendants 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.

Information about the case in question was first announced by Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim in March 2014. Amin al-Serafy is believed to have been held since Mursi's ouster in July 2013 and until then without formal charges.

International human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had expressed their concern regarding Serafy and other presidential aides' undisclosed whereabouts.

The former president is already accused in several other court cases. He is charged with inciting the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace during his tenure in December 2012, insulting the judiciary, escaping prison during the January 25 uprising in 2011, as well as facing a separate espionage case.

Egypt's relations with Qatar, seen as a strong Muslim Brotherhood supporter, have been strained since Mursi's military ouster in 2013.

Egypt and Qatar both embraced an appeal by the late Saudi King Abdullah to "consolidate relations between them" in December 2014.