* Interior minister denies Mursi refused to attend
* Trial of deposed Egyptian president put off until Feb. 1
* Mursi charged with inciting murder of protesters (Adds Brotherhood statement, arrests in referendum dispute)
By Yasmine Saleh
CAIRO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - The trial of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi on charges of inciting murder of protesters was postponed on Wednesday until Feb. 1 after officials said that bad weather had prevented him being flown to court.
The military-backed government has cracked down hard on Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood since his overthrow, arresting almost its entire leadership and thousands of its backers as well as formally declaring it a terrorist organisation. The Brotherhood says it is committed to peaceful activism.
The case against Mursi pertains to violence outside the presidential palace during unrest in late 2012 ignited by a decree that expanded his powers. Around a dozen people were killed at the time. Fourteen other Islamists are standing trial with Mursi.
He had been due in court on Tuesday for the second session of his trial, in which he could face the death penalty.
State media earlier reported that Mursi, who is being held separately from other Muslim Brotherhood leaders at a jail near Alexandria, had arrived at the Cairo police academy where the court was due to convene.
But the state news agency MENA, citing a senior security official, later reported that bad weather meant Mursi would most probably not be taken to court, where riot police in body armour were deployed in nearby streets.
"THICK FOG"
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, in comments reported by MENA, said the pilot had been worried about taking off "because of bad weather and thick fog in Alexandria".
Fog in Alexandria forced one commercial flight to be redirected to Cyprus on Wednesday morning, the director of the airport in the Mediterranean coastal city said.
Ibrahim denied reports that Mursi had refused to attend after Essam el-Erian, another Islamist politician on trial in the same case, told reporters in the courtroom that the fallen leader had not shown up for that reason.
The Brotherhood, in a statement issued from its press office in London, dismissed the official explanation for Mursi's absence from court as "risible", reiterating its view that he was a political prisoner.
The military deposed Mursi, who won Egypt's first freely contested presidential election, on July 3 after mass protests against his rule.
In his first appearance in court on Nov. 4, he declared he was still president, shouting: "Down with military rule".
Police arrested 17 Mursi acolytes outside the police academy on Wednesday, according to the Interior Ministry, which described them as "members and supporters of the terrorist Brotherhood organisation" and accused them of rioting. Security forces also closed off central Cairo's Tahrir Square.
The army-backed authorities brought two new cases against Mursi last month, accusing him of conspiring against Egypt with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Shi'ite Islamist government of Iran, and separately charging him over a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The government is pursuing a political transition plan that includes a Jan. 14-15 referendum on a new constitution. Overseas voting was due to start on Wednesday.
Strong Egypt, a party led by former Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, said it was reconsidering its participation in the vote after three of its members were arrested while putting up "No" posters.
Spokesman Ahmed Emam said in a statement posted on Facebook that the "repressive mentality" of those currently leading the country was another reason the party is considering boycotting the referendum.
The Brotherhood announced it would shun the vote before the government declared it a terrorist group.
The army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who overthrew Mursi, is now widely seen as the top contender to be elected president in an election that could happen as soon as April. (Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy, Tom Perry and Maggie Fick; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Michael Georgy and Mark Heinrich)
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