CAIRO: Justice Ahmed Refaat of the Cairo Criminal Court postponed Sunday the trial of Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, to Dec. 28 until a decision is made on whether to replace the panel of judges hearing the case. The appeal's court will make its final decision on Nov. 3, the official news agency MENA said, even though the decision was initially expected on Dec. 26. Mubarak, his sons and former interior minister Habib El-Adly, along with six of his top aides, are on trial for ordering the killing of protesters and other corruption charges. A number of the lawyers representing the martyrs' families filed a petition demanding a change of the judges' panel, claiming that the presiding judge's brother had dealings with some of the defendants. Sunday's hearing was administratively adjourned until the completion of the proceedings of changing the judge because it is not permissible for judge Ahmed Refaat, to look into the case until a final decision is made. "He should have stepped down Sunday from presiding over the case, but he is insisting to continue although it was proven that [judge Ahmed Refaat] too was indirectly involved with the defendants," said Amer Abdel Aziz, one of the plaintiff lawyers. Mohamed Tosson, another civil rights lawyer, said that Refaat will have no other option but to keep adjourning the trial until a decision is made on whether the panel will be replaced. Justice Hussein Abdel Rahman, who was tasked with making deciding on whether to uphold the replacement request, withdrew from the case Saturday, citing “embarrassment”. On Sunday, Justice Abdel Mo'ez Ibrahim, head of the Appeals Court, appointed Justice Fathalla Okasha to replace Justice Abdel Rahman who will make the final decision on Nov. 3. Abdel Aziz, who filed the replacement petition, said that the main reason for their demand is that Refaat's brother, Essam, was a member of the policies committee of the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) and worked with Gamal Mubarak. He claimed that Essam Refaat was a member of the pricing committee of the Supreme Council for the pricing of services in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, which includes in its composition fugitive businessman Hussein Salem, the main defendant in the case of exporting gas to Israel, who is being tried in absentia in Mubarak's case. "Postponement is much better than an acquittal for the defendants," Abdel Aziz said. According to Tosson, the judge had announced his opinion on the case before it ended. Abdel Aziz said that the other reason for their demand was that the panel threatened the plaintiffs to refer the civil case to another court and separate it from the criminal one which he considered an early disclosure of the tribunal's tendencies. "It is not permissible to issue a verdict in a civil case before the criminal one which means that the martyrs' families cannot claim compensation before a verdict is issued in the criminal case," he said. Meanwhile, Nasser Amin, head of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, said that he believes the main reason for the replacement demand was that the lawyers who requested it had serious problems organizing themselves, and so they resorted to this legal loophole to buy time. "This delay will not harm the martyrs' families because it is a legal demand that is within their rights as long as the judge in proven inappropriate to preside over the case," he said. The court deciding whether or not to replace Refaat will look into his professional history to find out if he held any consultancy position in the government under the previous regime.
