The Court of Cassation will examine former President Hosny Mubarak and his Minister of Interior Habib El-Adly’s challenges against their 25-year prison sentences Sunday.
Mubarak and El-Adly’s lawyers are calling on the court to assign the case to a different court and order a retrial. The public prosecution is also challenging the ruling and requesting a retrial in a different court.
The former president and his security chief were sentenced to 25 years in prison for their role in the killing of peaceful protestors during the 25 January uprising. The court found that they could have stopped the killings but did not do so.
Six of El-Adly’s top aides, also accused in the same case, were found innocent and acquitted. Both sets of defence lawyers are using these rulings to argue that Mubarak and El-Adly should also be set free. Meanwhile the prosecution demanded the police leader be convicted.
“The court acquitted the assistants to the minister of interior of charges it convicted Mubarak and El-Adly on, even though the same evidence was presented against all defendants,” the prosecution wrote in its memo.
The prosecution added that the court ignored evidence pointing towards the defendants’ guilt as two former ministers of interior testified that policemen could not have shot at protestors without their superiors’ orders or approval.
The Court of Cassation, the highest court in Egypt, is also the highest court of appeal. It will decide whether to uphold, reduce, or overturn the sentences delivered by the Cairo Criminal Court or assign a different court to retry the defendants.
The court has so far cancelled all verdicts and ordered retrials for all cases involving former regime officials, citing that the trials had taken place during “severe pressure from public opinion.”
Mubarak and El-Adly will not be required to attend the sessions themselves.
