CAIRO: The trial of former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons resumed on Monday at the Police Academy, as the civil rights team called for separating the corruption chargers from the murder case.
"There should be a separation between the accusations in the gas deal and the killing of the protesters, since we fear that a verdict would be issued in one case only while the other is not," civil rights lawyer and former head of the Lawyer’s Syndicate, Sameh Ashour, said.
Mubarak is charged with ordering the killing of protesters. The prosecution included in the same file corruption charges relating to facilitating the acquisition of land in South Sinai and the gas export to Israel with reduced prices, to the benefit of businessman Hussein Salem, who is being tried in absentia.
"We also request adding more charges to the gas deal case to guarantee the fairness of the trial," Ashour added, expressing fear that Israel might resort to international arbitration in case the court invalidates the deal.
Like the first hearing on Aug. 3, the ousted president was rolled in on a stretcher. His sons, Alaa and Gamal, tried to block cameras directed at their father in the dock.
Meanwhile, clashes erupted repeatedly between anti- and pro-Mubarak supporters outside the academy, in which the trial is held.
Presiding Judge Ahmed Refaat urged the plaintiff lawyers to coordinate with each other after arguments between them delayed the start of the session.
"The lack of organization among the civil rights lawyers prevents the court from hearing the case on a daily basis," said Refaat.
"You have rights, and the defendants too, so please organize yourselves so justice could be served," he added, noting that he had a list of over 100 speakers to go through. He urged them to avoid repetition in requests as what happened a day earlier during the trial of former minister of interior Habib El-Adly.
Refaat went through the evidence presented by the prosecution: CDs, DVDs, video tapes and flash drive. The content of the data wasn’t disclosed.
Defense lawyer Farid El-Deeb urged the court to adjourn the trial to further investigate the evidence.
El-Deeb called for the inclusion of reports from the Egyptian Ambulances Authority which detail places and times of transferring the martyrs and the injured from Jan. 25 to Jan. 31.
He also called for the inclusion of the official investigation report presented by the Administrative Monitoring Authority regarding the villas in question and the related contracts between Neama Company and Egyptian Engineers Company, owned by Salem.
The judge ordered a recess for deliberation.
