The Egyptian prosecutor-general has referred Mohamed Refaa al-Tahtawi – who served as chief of presidential staff during the tenure of ousted president Mohamed Morsi – to a criminal court on charges that he abused his position, according to a Tuesday statement.

Egyptian prosecutors accused al-Tahtawi of using his authority to hire lawyer Sayed Abdel-Ati, who had served a 15-year jail term on terrorism-related charges in the 1990s, at Morsi's presidential office, in violation of the presidency's employment bylaws.

Prosecutors ordered the detention of both al-Tahtawi and Abdel-Ati pending trial.

Al-Tahtawi, a former career diplomat, is detained pending a separate trial in which Morsi himself and 33 others face "espionage" charges.

Many figures associated with Morsi's brief tenure as president – along with his Muslim Brotherhood group – have been detained and tried since his ouster and subsequent imprisonment by the military last year.

The ousted leader, who says all charges against him and his co-defendants are politically motivated, has refused to recognize the trials' legitimacy and insists he still represents Egypt's democratically-elected president.

AA