| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Africa North | |
| Egypt court sets May 11 for Mubarak retrial | |
| 2013-04-18 | |
| The Cairo appellate court on Wednesday set May 11 for the resumption of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s retrial in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that deposed him. Mubarak remains in custody on new corruption charges, though a court ordered him released earlier this week before his retrial over the deaths of protesters. The decision to transfer him back to Tora prison, where his two sons are being held before facing a corruption trial, came after the prosecutor ordered the formation of a medical committee to look into Mubarak’s health. Mubarak appeared in court Saturday for the first time since his conviction in June 2012. After he was wheeled into the courtroom on a hospital gurney, he sat upright, grinned and waved to supporters from inside the metal defendant’s cage. In January, an appeals court overturned a life sentence against Mubarak for failing to prevent the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising in 2011. He was the first Arab leader to appear in a defendant’s cage and stand trial by his own people. The new date for the retrial was set after the judge in the case recused himself last weekend. The judge had ordered acquittals in October for 25 Mubarak loyalists accused of organizing a deadly attack in which assailants on horses and camels stormed downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the uprising. President Mohammed Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, criticised the judiciary for several recent acquittals. ‘The acquittals of corrupt and criminal Mubarak-era figures confirms that the revolution is not complete,’ party spokesman Murad Ali said in a statement. He said the acquittals highlight ‘dysfunction in the judiciary system.’
| |
| Posted by:Steve White |