Members of the 6th of April movement and relatives of people killed in the 2011 Egyptian revolution, shout anti-government slogans and demand the release of political prisoners, outside the High Court in Cairo, yesterday.
CAIRO: The retrial of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on charges of complicity in the killing of demonstrators in the uprising that ousted him will start on May 11, a Cairo appeals court said yesterday.
Mubarak was ordered to be transferred back to prison from a military hospital yesterday on the recommendation of a medical team after he appeared fitter at his aborted retrial.
The prosecutor general’s office said it had decided Mubarak would be returned to Torah prison on the outskirts of Cairo. It did not say when he would be moved.
Many Egyptians were angered when the 84-year-old Mubarak, who had been seriously ill last year, appeared in good health, smiling and waving to the public in court last Saturday, prompting calls for him to be put back in jail.
A first attempt to hold the retrial collapsed on Saturday when the presiding judge withdrew from the case and referred it to another court. Mustafa Hassan Abdullah had been widely criticised for acquitting security men accused of attacking protesters in an incident in which crowds were charged by men riding camels.
Mubarak, 84, who ruled Egypt for almost 30 years before being toppled by the 18-day popular uprising in 2011, was convicted last June along with former Interior Minister Habib Al Adli of failing to prevent the killing of more than 800 demonstrators, rather than actually ordering it.
Mubarak and Adli were sentenced to life imprisonment but the country’s highest appeals court ordered a retrial in January after accepting appeals from both the defence and prosecution.
This time, the presiding judge will be Mahmoud Kamel El Rashidi, a low-profile jurist.
The same court will retry Mubarak’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal on separate charges of financial corruption at the same time, state news agency Mena reported.
Reuters
