Deposed Egypt president Mohamed Morsi defiant as trial adjourned Egypt's ousted Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, on Monday defiantly insisted he was the country's legitimate leader as his trial for inciting violence got off to a raucous start at a heavily-guarded police academy on the outskirts of Cairo. Rejecting the proceedings against him as "cover for a coup," the former president repeatedly interrupted the presiding judge, who adjourned the hearing when Mr Morsi tried to demand a special trial in accordance with procedures for the impeachment of a president set out in the suspended 2012 constitution. I am Dr Mohamed Morsi, the president of the republic, and I am present here by force and against my will. The coup is criminal and treasonable," he said from a metal cage at the side of the courtroom when the judge asked him to confirm his name. The hearing was Mr Morsi's first public appearance since the popularly-backed coup that deposed him on July 3, shattering the fortunes of his Muslim Brotherhood group, which until then was the dominant political force in the country. The trial comes against the backdrop of an ongoing crackdown against the Brotherhood, which has seen hundreds of its supporters killed and thousands more arrested as the new military-backed authorities seek to cripple the group, which has led in all elections held since the 2011 revolution. Egypt's political divisions were laid bare inside the courtroom, with some local journalists covering the trial yelling "Execution Morsi," and conducting angry exchanges with lawyers representing the Islamists, whom they accused of being in the pay of Qatar. Inside the cage, the defendants chanted "down, down with the rule of the soldiers." Mr Morsi, the country's first elected president, is on trial with 14 others, most from the Brotherhood - only seven of whom were present on charges of murder, attempted murder and torture relating to clashes that killed 10 people outside his presidential palace in December. The violence started when the Brotherhood sent thousands of its supporters to clear a protest camp erected by protestors angry at a decision by Mr Morsi to place himself temporarily above judicial review. For the past four months, Mr Morsi has been held virtually incommunicado in an undisclosed military location with no access to lawyers or family in what has been described as an "enforced disappearance" by Amnesty International, the rights group. Dressed in a dark suit, having reportedly refused to wear the white uniform of prisoners in temporary detention, Mr Morsi was brought to the court by helicopter. It was announced after the hearing that he would be flown to the Borg al-Arab prison, west of Alexandria. After demands by Mr Morsi's legal team, the judge agreed that the lawyers would be able to consult with their client and the trial was adjourned until January 8. Mohamed al Damati, a lawyer and spokesman for the defence team, said they would back Mr Morsi's attempt to reject the court's authority because it did not conform with the constitution. Unlike the opening of the trial of his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, the president ousted by the 2011 revolt, the hearing was not broadcast live, in a sign of the nervousness on the part of the authorities that the defendants would use it to rally political support. Only a few hundred supporters were outside police barriers blocking off the road leading to the courtroom, despite Brotherhood calls for mass protests. Thousands gathered outside the constitutional court in southern Cairo and others staged a protest in Alexandria. The December killings in front of the presidential palace had provoked outrage against the Brotherhood, and to many Egyptians they constituted a turning point in attitudes towards the group which was seen to have resorted to violence by its supporters to quell opposition to Mr Morsi. Even so, human rights groups express unease with the current trial. "We are worried that justice in Egypt so far seems to be selective," said Tamara Alrifai, a spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch. We are still waiting for accountability in incidents which involve the security forces since 2011.