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 swept Mubarak from power earlier this year.
Mubarak's sons, Alaa and Jamal, are standing the same trial on charges of corruption and abusing their father's power.
Mubarak, 83, attended Wednesday'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 families of the slain protesters, Refaat also ordered a technical probe into claims that officials in state television had ordered videotapes on the anti-Mubarak protests be erased allegedly 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 that the testimonies of those officials, including the incumbent chief of the intelligence service, are crucial for the case.
In September, the court cross-examined Hussain Tantawi, Egypt's de facto military ruler who served as Mubarak's defence minister, and Omar Sulaiman, the former intelligence service. Their testimonies were given behind closed doors.
Outside the court building on Wednesday, 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 sides be executed.
Metres away, Mubarak's supporters, heavily surrounded by security forces, waved his portrait, shouting they are confident he will be eventually proclaimed innocent.
All defendants pleaded not guilty when the trial began on August 3.
The trial was suspended for almost three months in late September when claimants requested the court panel be replaced for purported bias towards the defendants. Their request was rejected early this month.
