CAIRO: The next session in former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s trial will be on Dec. 28, two days after a separate court convenes to decide whether to change the judges handling the case, the judge said on Sunday.
Mubarak, his two sons, the former interior minister and senior police officers, who face a range of charges including involvement in killing protesters, were in the Cairo court on Sunday when the judge announced the adjournment.
Lawyers representing families of those killed in the uprising which ousted Mubarak in February have raised a suit calling for presiding judge Ahmed Refaat and others on the judges’ panel be replaced.
The judges looking into this suit asked to step down on Saturday. It wasn’t clear on Sunday which judge will decide on Dec. 26 if there will be any changes in the judges handling the Mubarak trial.
Mubarak’s trial began on Aug. 3 and is being held at the Police Academy on the outskirts of Cairo.
During court sessions, Mubarak has been wheeled in on a hospital stretcher and placed inside a cage used for defendants in criminal cases.
The 83-year-old former president had been held in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh but was moved to a hospital in Cairo for the start of the trial.
Television cameras, which were allowed in for the opening sessions, are no longer let in to film the case.
Mubarak is being tried with his sons, Alaa, a businessman, and Gamal, a former banker who had a top post in his father’s ruling party and who was once seen as being groomed for office.
Interior Minister Habib Al-Adly and six senior police officers are also standing trial. Businessman Hussein Salem, a close associate of Mubarak, is being tried in absentia.–Additional reporting by Daily News Egypt.
