CAIRO: The family of Egypt’s ousted president will not attend his trial, his son said Sunday, a day before it opens in Cairo amid heightened security and planned Muslim Brotherhood protests that could again deteriorate into deadly street violence.

Osama Mursi said that Muhammad Mursi’s family does not recognize the trial’s “legitimacy,” and consider him “kidnapped,” and held as a “hostage.”

Mursi is scheduled to face charges of inciting violence and murder in connection to clashes in front of presidential palace in December.

In recent statements, a coalition led by Mursi’s Brotherhood described the trial as a “farce” and reiterated that it regarded him as the “elected, legitimate president” of Egypt. “This is a naive tool to break our will and our determination,” it said Sunday.

The prospects of a new confrontation between security forces and Mursi supporters on the trial day are high. A Brotherhood-led group has called for mass rallies, while the interior minister has ordered the deployment of large number of security forces to guard the trial venue, a police institute in southern Cairo.

It is unclear whether the trial will be aired live or if Mursi will return to his current place of detention or join fellow Brotherhood leaders who are detained in Torah prison, adjacent to the trial venue.