The judge in the retrial case of the ousted president declined to sit over the case and sent it to a different appeal district. Ousted President Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Alaa had waved earlier on Saturday morning to supporters from their cage inside the court room as they waited for judges to start proceedings in their retrial cases. A medically equipped helicopter had carried ousted President Hosni Mubarak from Maadi Military Hospital to the Police Academy in North Cairo where he faces retrial for his role in killing protesters during the January 25 revolution, Ahram Arabic news website reported. The ministry of interior had intensified its security meassures around the academy where the proceedings of his retrial were set to take place. Tens of pro-Mubarak supporters carrying pictures of the former dictator rallied outside the academy. The former president will be retried before a new court for the charges on which he was convicted and sentenced to life in jail last June: turning a blind eye to the killing of more than 680 demonstrators during the 18 days of the uprising that toppled him. Additionally, former Minister of interior Habib El-Adly and six of his top aides face retrial for their role in the murder of protesters during the uprising. El-Adly, like Mubarak, was hit with a life-sentence, however, his six aides were all aquitted.
Last January, an appeal court ruled Mubarak and co-defendants had the right to appeal verdicts due to procedural irregularities in the initial trial. Alaa and Gamal Mubarak had arrived at the academy on Saturday morning in armoured personal carriers guarded by police vans to face retrial in financial corruption convictions. One of the plaintiff's lawyers, Sayed Hamed, told Ahram Online from the courtroom that he had intended to demand that the court add the secretary general of the now dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) Safwat El-Sherif; former NDP member and steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz; Mubarak's younger son, Gamal; former first lady Suzanne Mubarak and parliament speaker under Mubarak's rule Ahmed Fathi Sorour as accused in the case of killing demonstrators during the 18-day uprising in January 2011. Attorney Essam Batawy, representing former interior minister Habib El-Adly, told Ahram Online he would have petitioned for El-Adly be released for time served, considering his client has spent two years in provisional detention.
