Ammon News - Guardian - Egypt's former president, Mohamed Morsi, is due to make his second public appearance since he was ousted in July, as he stands trial on charges relating to his jailbreak during the 2011 uprising.

Prosecutors say he and other leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood were freed from jail illegally on 30 January 2011 in an intervention from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, a few days after they were detained as the uprising got under way. Morsi allies say they left because policemen abandoned their posts and question why the charges were not brought before Morsi became president, given that the circumstances surrounding the jailbreak were already well known.

The trial is the second of four for Morsi. The Muslim Brotherhood leader is also accused of insulting Egypt's judiciary and collaborating in an international terrorism conspiracy involving Palestinian Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran's revolutionary guards. He has already appeared in court for allegedly inciting the murder of protesters during demonstrations in Cairo in December 2012.

Unlike Morsi's first court appearance, last November, the session on Tuesday will be broadcast on domestic television. The authorities will hope the Islamist figurehead does not make as big a commotion as he did in November, when he refused to recognise the legitimacy of the court and insisted he remained the rightful president, sparking scuffles in the courtroom between lawyers and journalists.

Were Morsi to do the same, his strategy would appear more fanciful in the light of recent events. Two weeks ago Egyptians voted strongly in favour of a new constitution to replace a version enacted under Morsi. And on Monday army generals gave Abdel Fatah al-Sisi – the man who toppled Morsi from power – their blessing to run for the presidency himself, all but setting the seal on the Morsi era.

Morsi's trials are one measure through which the Egyptian state has tried to force the Muslim Brotherhood out of public life. Since Morsi was deposed, on 3 July, and held incommunicado in several military facilities, the group has had its assets frozen and been declared a terrorist organisation. Thousands of its members have been arrested or killed, while most of its leaders are either in jail or exile.