Along with 47 leaders and members of the Islamist movement, supreme guide Mohamed Badie is accused of inciting violence that erupted in the Nile Delta city of Qaliub, days only after the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July, the sources said.
Badie and the others, wearing the white uniform of defendants, appeared behind a cage running along the side of the court, as family members spoke to relatives before the hearing.
Since Morsi's overthrow, his supporters have been staging near daily protests, calling for his reinstatement.
The trial is part of a relentless crackdown led by the authorities against Morsi supporters that has left more than 1,400 killed, according to Amnesty International, and thousands of others detained.
Badie and his two deputies, Khairat al-Shater and Rashad Bayoumi, are also being tried on separate charges related to the deaths of protesters who stormed the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters on June 30.
That trial will resume on February 13, the sources said today, after judges previously withdrew twice from the case.
Morsi himself is facing four separate trials.
He is also being tried for a prison break during the 2011 uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak.
The deposed Islamist president likewise faces charges of espionage in collaboration with the Palestinian Hamas movement and of insulting the judiciary.
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