Cairo: Five Kuwaiti lawyers arrived on Sunday in Cairo, volunteering to defend former president Hosni Mubarak whose trial resumes Monday.
They were welcomed by scores of Mubarak's supporters at the Cairo airport.
"Our defence of Mubarak is meant to show gratitude to him for his defence of Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion (in 1990)," Faisal Al Oteibi, the head of the Kuwaiti lawyers' team, was quoted as saying in Egyptian newspapers on Sunday.
Mubarak is being tried on charges of ordering a deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters against his rule earlier this year. He, along with his two sons, Alaa and Jamal, are facing charges of corruption. Their historic trial started on August 3.
"According to the legal rule, the accused is innocent until he is proved otherwise," Al Oteibi added, denying their move is a political gesture. "We are not against the Egyptian people," he was quoted as saying.
Egyptian lawyers, meanwhile, threatened to take legal action to bar the Kuwait team from joining the defence lawyers for Mubarak. According to them, Egyptian law does not allow foreign lawyers to do the job in Egyptian courts.
