CAIRO – Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak appeared on a stretcher for the opening of his murder trial in Cairo on Wednesday, as his two sons stood by his side in the dock. Mubarak, looking pale and dressed in white, could be seen talking to his sons. Former interior minister Habib al Adly and six of his deputies are being tried in the same case.
His two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were composed as Judge Ahmed Refaat, presiding over the Cairo Criminal Court, declared the trial open.
It was Mubarak’s first public appearance since he was ousted by a popular uprising on February 11.
Refaat said the session, which was being aired live on Egyptian television, would be conducted “in complete calm,” warning that he would throw out anyone seen to disrupt the proceedings.
The Mubaraks are accused of graft and ordering the killing of anti-regime protesters during the huge popular uprising that forced the president to stand down and transfer power to the military.
His fall from grace was one Mubarak found difficult to accept.
On April 10, in his first public statement since his resignation, Mubarak told pan-Arab news network Al-Arabiya that he and his family were the victims of “false claims that seek to ruin my reputation and challenge my integrity.”
In a move that angered many Egyptians, he even threatened libel suits against any media reporting the allegations against him.
