CAIRO (AP) — The jailed leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has called on judges not to let the courts be politicized, speaking from his defendants cage at the opening of a new trial.
Mohammed Badie appeared in court Tuesday for a new trial in which he and 50 Brotherhood members face charges ranging for threatening to destabilize the country to plotting to kidnap the country's former powerful military chief.
Badie faces several trials in the government crackdown on Brotherhood, which it declared a terrorist organization following the military overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi.
Badie scoffed at his various trials, saying he faces a death sentence in a trial he never attended. He said Egypt's judges should not accept that the profession be "insulted" at the hands of some among them.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Violent clashes have erupted in Cairo and three other Egyptian cities between police and university students loyal to the ousted Islamist president.
In Cairo, police and students from Ein Shams university fought pitched street battles for hours, with police using tear gas and the students pelting them with rocks. Police helicopters hovered above as the fighting continued.
In Assiut, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of the capital, some 45 people, including 15 schoolgirls and two policemen, were injured when police and university students clashed. Seven students were arrested.
Clashes also broke out Tuesday in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and in Mansoura, north of Cairo.
Nearly daily violent clashes between Islamist students and police have been taking place since the military ousted Mohammed Morsi in July.