Morsi says he is still Egypt’s President

Egypt’s deposed leader Mohammed Morsi has gone on trial in Cairo, telling the judge the case is illegitimate and insisting that he remains president.

As he entered the courtroom on Monday, Morsi refused to remove his blue suit and put on the required white prison uniform. The defendants, who were being held in a cage in the courtroom, chanted “illegal, illegal”.

“I am Dr Mohammed Morsi, the president of the republic. I am Egypt’s legitimate president. You have no right to conduct a trial into presidential matters,” he said, according to the BBC.

The judge twice temporarily halted proceedings before adjourning the case until January.

Morsi and 14 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders face charges of incitement to violence and murder stemming from protests outside the presidency building in north-east Cairo last December.