Egypt's Morsi referred to criminal court

, Dec 19: The Egyptian prosecutor-general referred ousted Islamist president

and other leading Brotherhood figures to

court on charges related to "espionage", media reported.

Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat referred a number of Muslim Brotherhood leading figures to criminal court along with Morsi, including the Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badei and deputies Khairat al-Shater and Mahmoud Ezzat, along with the former parliament speaker Saad al-Katatni and others, Xinhua reported quoting state-run MENA news agency.

The public prosecution accuses the group of spying for foreign bodies, including the Islamist Hamas movement, with the aim of committing terrorist acts in the country.

The group is also charged with revealing secrets of the country to a foreign country and financing terrorism and military training of its elements to achieve the goals of the international organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Morsi has been detained since his ouster in early July by the military. Later, other top Brotherhood leaders were detained in sweeping nation-wide arrests.

IANS