(AFP PHOTO / HASSAN MOHAMED)
The retrial of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, his sons and several others was postponed on Sunday by the Cairo Criminal Court to Tuesday.
Mubarak is being retried – alongside his two sons Gamal and Alaa, former Minister of Interior Habib Al-Adly and six of his aides – for his role in refraining from preventing the killing of protesters during the 25 January Revolution. Mubarak, his sons and fugitive businessman Hussein Salem are also accused of harming public funds through the exportation of natural gas to Israel.
During the court session on Sunday, the arguments of the defence of one Al-Adly’s aides were heard and the arguments of another aide are slated to be heard on Tuesday. A trial session was held on Saturday, during which the aides’ arguments were also heard.
Labelled “The Trial of the Century”, the first session took place on 4 August 2011. The former president was handed a life sentence by the Cairo Criminal Court; however, the Cassation Court accepted Mubarak’s appeal and ordered a retrial before a different Criminal Court in February 2012.
Mubarak appeared in court in a blue suit during the sessions on Saturday and Sunday; blue is the color worn by convicts. After dozens of court appearances, the ousted president was sentenced on 21 May to three years in a maximum security prison for embezzlement. His sons also wore blue after they were sentenced in the same case to four years each in a maximum security prison. Collectively, they were fined EGP 125m and are required to repay EGP 21m.
Besides these two cases, Mubarak is being tried for graft and receiving gifts from national journalism institutions.
Mubarak, 86, has remained in a military hospital in Cairo since he had was freed from detention in August and ordered to remain under house arrest last August when the maximum pre-trial detention period expired. He was arrested in April 2011.
