CAIRO: The trial of former Egyptian Minsiter of Interior Habib al-Adly continued today before the North Cairo Criminal Court and Judge Ahmed Refaat. Al-Adly and six of his assistants are charged with killing demonstrators during Egypt's January 25 Revolution. Judge Refaat allowed all lawyers with syndicate IDs to enter the courtroom, including those without permits. The decision came after the former head of the Bar Association, Sameh Ashour, called on the judge to allow the lawyers inside, saying civil rights lawyers would not waste the court's time. He also called for the court to be better organized. Technically, no person was to be allowed into the court without prior permission. The over-crowded courtroom caused Judge Refaat to call four recessed during the hearing. The first came only 20 minutes after the hearing began due to the overwhelming number of demands from civil rights lawyers. Although the judge requested that each lawyer present their clients' demands in written form, many insisted on reciting them orally, which caused tension in the courtroom. The second recess came after a small conflict occurred between a representative from the public prosecutor's office, a civil rights lawyer and Judge Mustafa Khater. The lawyer said that the evidence produced by the public prosecutor's office was “weak" and insufficient to convict the defendants of killing demonstrators. The representative replied that the lawyer should adhere to the professional code of conduct and not lash out at the prosecutor's office. The lawyer answered that as a lawyer of the Court of Cassation he is well aware of how a professional should conduct himself. Finally, Judge Refaat called a recess. When the hearing was resumed, lawyers began to request that more evidence be brought forward and presented to the court. They requested that the next hearing of the al-Adly trial be merged with tomorrow's second hearing of the case against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal and businessman Hussein Salem in order to facilitate matters for the court, which would only have to issue one ruling instead of several. They also called for more plaintiffs to be added to the case and that these plaintiffs be submitted to a forensic examination, as some of them still have bullets and pellets lodged in their bodies from the revolution. In addition, they called for expert witnesses, including a weapons and ammunition experts from the Ministry of Defense, to verify that the bullets are those used by the ministry. They also asked to present other evidence in the form of recordings made in Tahrir Square and footage from closed-circuit television cameras at the American University in Cairo's Tahrir campus, which may have captured incidents of killing or injuring demonstrators. Habib al-Adly's defense lawyer said the former minister would soon be submitting an account of his version of events, written in his own handwriting. The third and fourth recesses were called as a result of civil rights lawyers' protests when the court decided to stop listening to their demands in order to give defense lawyers a chance to present their demands. Finally Judge Refaat decided to adjourn the court until September 5 to allow the court time to review the demands and evidence presented by defense lawyers. This was supposed to happen today, but due to conflicts between defense and plaintiff lawyers the court decided to postpone the hearing.
