Cairo: An Egyptian court, trying former President Hosni Mubarak and ex-interior minister Habib Al Adly, on Wednesday postponed their trial until January 2. The decision followed a four-hour session held after a break of nearly three months.
Mubarak, Al Adly and six senior security aides are being tried on charges of complicity in the killing of more than 800 protesters during a popular uprising that eventually ousted Mubarak from power earlier this year.
Mubarak's sons, Ala'a and Jamal, are standing the same trial on charges of corruption and abusing their father's power.
Mubarak, 83, attended yesterday's session lying on a hospital bed. He had been brought into the Police Academy near Cairo, where the trial was being held, aboard an army helicopter.
Before concluding the session, the presiding judge, Ahmad Refaat ordered investigators to provide the court with a complete list of the names of protesters killed and injured during the 18-day revolt against Mubarak.
Upon a request from lawyers representing the families of slain protesters, Refaat also ordered a technical probe into claims that officials in the state television had ordered videotapes on the anti-Mubarak protests be erased to cover up clues.
Meanwhile, lawyers for the defendants requested nine senior officials in the police and the army be summoned to testify in the trial. The lawyers said the testimonies of those officials, including the incumbent chief of the intelligence service, are crucial for the case.
Outside the court building yesterday, dozens of families of the dead protesters raised photos of their loved ones and demanded execution of "the killers", referring to Mubarak and senior policemen. A parent carried makeshift scales of justice with a noose, symbolising his demand that Mubarak and his aides be executed.
