When the retrial of ousted president Hosni Mubarak began in April the defendant appeared in court smiling and waving to supporters from inside his cage. The smile cost Mubarak dear: the prosecutor-general appointed by Islamist President Mohamed Morsi ordered Mubarak to be transferred from the Maadi military hospital back to Tora Prison. Mubarak, who faces graft charges as well as ordering the police to kill pro-democracy protesters during the 18-day 25 January Revolution, looked sullen and depressed when he reappeared in court on 11 May. Lawyers representing the families of victims chanted slogans against Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal. “The people want the mass murderer to be executed,” shouted one. Another lawyer demanded the judge be changed because he had earlier presided over trials in which police officers were acquitted of killing protesters during the revolution. Mubarak's supporters responded by chanting slogans against the Muslim Brotherhood, clashing with lawyers of the families who they accused of accepting money from the Brotherhood in exchange for chanting slogans against Mubarak. The 85-year-old former president, dressed in white prison garb and wearing sunglasses, listened to the proceedings from the defendant's cage alongside his sons, former interior minister Habib Al-Adli and six senior police chiefs. All pleaded innocent. Presiding judge Mohamed Al-Rashidi stole much of the limelight during Saturday's hearing. He noted that in the course of his 40-year career he had never encountered so many lawyers working on a single case. “After taking charge of the trial 23 days ago,” he told the court, “I have spent day and night reading the documents relating to the case which now number 55,000. More time is needed to review so many pages. Prosecutors have now presented new evidence from the fact-finding committee's report and I have therefore decided to adjourn hearings until 8 June.” Al-Rashidi stressed that justice cannot be mixed with politics and that he remained committed to ensuring a fair trial. He denied reports that he had prevented Kuwaiti lawyers from defending Mubarak. “They were not authorised by Mubarak to defend him,” said Al-Rashidi. “I have given permission for 50 defence lawyers to attend the court hearings.” Lawyers representing the families of murdered protesters complained that they had faced problems gaining access to the courtroom. The prosecution surprised many observers by filing a new charge, accusing Mubarak and Al-Adli of failing to “arrest foreign elements who were able to storm prisons during the 18-day revolution”. The allegation subsequently provided fodder for a host of television talk shows with pundits speculating on how Hamas may have exploited the political chaos on 28, 29 and 30 January 2011 to storm prisons and release detainees belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, including current Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. "New evidence suggests there was close cooperation between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to ride the wave of the revolution and exploit it,” says Al-Ahram political analyst Emad Gad. “Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, backed by the United States and the ruling military junta, were able to spread chaos in Egypt, storming into and torching police stations.” Gad claims “recent reports have uncovered regular contacts between Hamas and Brotherhood officials all with the objective of toppling the Mubarak regime and using armed violence against protesters.” Mubarak's lawyer Farid Al-Deeb claimed in a television interview that “many peaceful protesters were killed by Hamas snipers”. He told Mehwar channel that recordings of telephone calls between Hamas and Brotherhood officials during the early days of the revolution revealed how the two groups planned to spread chaos. Al-Masry Al-Youm recently published what it claimed to be a transcription of some of these calls. Though the contacts were originally denied senior Brotherhood official Mohamed Al-Beltagui subsequently acknowledged that he had been in contact with Hamas during the revolution. Al-Adli's lawyer Essam El-Batawi requested that 43 current and former officials be summoned to testify that “foreign elements exploited lawlessness during the revolution to infiltrate the country and use armed violence.” Included on the witness list are Minister of Defence Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi who was the head of the military police during the revolution, the head of the National Security Apparatus Mustafa Abdel-Nabi, Chief of Presidential Staff Naguib Abdel-Salam, former military police chief Hamdi Badin, former prime minister Ahmed Nazif; former foreign minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit, Brigadier Amro Al-Ragili, the officer in charge of securing the US embassy during the uprising and opposition leader Mohamed Al-Baradei. Prosecutor Mustafa Khater accused Mubarak of ordering Al-Adli to open fire on protesters to disrupt demonstrations. In the first trial Mubarak was acquitted of the charge. Judge Ahmed Refaat ruled that there was no clear evidence that Mubarak gave orders to shoot protesters though “in his capacity as president of the republic he made no attempts to stop the bloodshed on the streets.” Mohamed Tantawi, head of the military that took over after Mubarak's ouster, testified in September 2011 that Mubarak never ordered military forces to kill protesters. Khater also accused Mubarak of accepting five villas in Sharm El-Sheikh from businessman Hussein Salem in exchange for allocating him two million metres of land in the resort at a fraction of their market value.
