CAIRO: Egypt's ministry of health reported that some 53 people have been injured in clashes between pro- and anti-Hosni Mubarak supporters outside the Police Academy where the historic trial of the former president is taking place. The ministry said that 43 people were treated on the spot and 10 others were transferred to a nearby hospital. The two groups threw empty bottles and hurled rocks at each other outside the courtroom as tensions ran high ahead of the trial. Many families of those who were killed in the January uprising that ousted Mubarak had gathered outside of the academy joined by rights activists and journalists. On the other side of the road tens of Mubarak supporters had also gathered. Eye witnesses said the pro-Mubarak supporters started hurling rocks at the activists and families. Mubarak and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly's lawyer has asked the court to divide the two cases and allow Adly and his aides' case to return to district 4 where it was initially begun. One lawyer asked the court to do DNA samples on the elder Mubarak as he argued the person on the bed inside the court's cage was not Mubarak and that “this is part of an American and Zionist scheme.” Another lawyer asked the judge to take the finger prints of Alaa, Gamal and Hosni Muabrak to conduct research related to any criminal history. All three Mubaraks pleaded not guilty and denied the charges against them. BM
