CAIRO: Ousted president Hosni Mubarak missed Tuesday's court hearing due to poor weather conditions, as the defense for General Adly Fayed, former deputy interior minister, pleaded its case. According to Samir Helmy, one of the civil rights lawyers, Fayed's defense team said that no orders were given to central security forces to use live ammunition against peaceful protesters during the January uprising. His lawyers argued that if orders were given to shoot protesters, the death toll would've been much higher. Fayed's lawyers also said that charges against the defendants should be negligence and failing to maintain security, but not premeditated murder. Mubarak, former interior minister Habib El-Adly and six of his aides are charged with complicity in the killing of 225 protesters and wounding over 1,300 during the uprising in January and February 2011 which eventually toppled the regime. Helmy said that the “defense lawyers have continued to present weak evidence” and continued their efforts to prolong the trial. However, he pointed out that Fayed's lawyers are “more or less trying to plead a case, rather than coming up with pointless arguments and allegations such as the American University in Cairo's security were the ones to fire at the protestors,” he said referring to the claim made by El-Adly's defense lawyer. Mubarak is flown into court every session by a helicopter from a military hospital where he is currently residing. He usually attends the sessions lying on a hospital bed since his trial began, except for one occasion when he sat on a wheelchair. On Wednesday, the defense team for Hassan Abdel Rahman, former chief of state security, will present its case.
