Morsi's trial adjourned to 13 May

An Egyptian court on Sunday adjourned until 13 May the trial of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and 14 others charged with inciting the murder of demonstrators outside Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace in late 2012.

Judicial sources said court judges adjourned the trial in order to hear testimonies from more prosecution witnesses. Judges have banned media from reporting the trial proceeds for the eight session in a row.

The court had earlier imposed a gag order on the eyewitnesses' testimonies, citing national security concerns. During Sunday's session, judges listened to the accounts of three prosecution witnesses, judicial sources said.

Morsi and his 14 co-defendants, seven of whom are being tried in absentia, are charged with inciting the murder of opposition demonstrators outside the palace in late 2012.

While a total of 11 people, including eight Morsi supporters, were killed in the clashes, the trial only addresses the death of one reporter and two anti-Morsi protesters.

Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected leader, was ousted by the military last July, after only one year in office, following protests against presidency. Morsi, along with all of his co-defendants, insists that the charges are politically motivated.

Crisis in the Sinai 

Interim government officials have repeatedly accused the Muslim Brotherhood of organising or encouraging violence, including in the restive Sinai peninsula. The Brotherhood has denied these allegations and has denounced the violence. 

On Sunday, a militant group vowed to launch new attacks in Egypt as it claimed responsability for two suicide bombings carried out on Friday. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) said it carried out Friday's attacks, which targeted a checkpoint and a nearby bus outside the South Sinai provincial capital Al-Tur.

A soldier was killed and six policemen wounded by the first bomber. Five civilians were wounded by the second.

The Sinai-based group, which has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in Egypt since Morsi's oust, called for a revolt against the military-installed authorities.

"We will not rest until we avenge the blood and bodies of Muslims," the group said in a statement posted on jihadist forums, referring to the killing of Morsi supporters in a brutal police crackdown launched after his ouster.

Amnesty International says more than 1,400 people, mostly Islamist supporters of Morsi, have been killed since he was overthrown.