On Wednesday, the trial of Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak resumed after a three-month break that saw the ousted strongman's fate eclipsed by deadly clashes and an Islamist election victory. Mubarak may face the death sentence if he is found to have been complicit in the killings of some 850 people who died during protests that overthrew him in February.The frail former president, 83, arrived by ambulance at a police academy which once bore his name, and was wheeled by stretcher into the courthouse. Around 5,000 policemen were on the streets to secure the trial at the academy in the outskirts of Cairo, in coordination with the army. Mubarak's two sons Alaa and Gamal, his former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six former security chiefs, also defendants in the case, arrived in court as well.
Several pro-Mubarak supporters held banners of the former president, while families of the victims that died in protests carried pictures of their deceased relatives.
Some in the crowd shouted, "The trial is a sham and the gang still rules. We removed Mubarak, we got Hussein. To hell with both of them," they shouted in reference to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's longtime defense minister who is now running the country.
The trial came to a halt when lawyers asked for presiding judge Ahmed Refaat to be replaced, a request that was subsequently rejected on December 7.
Mubarak's first hearing in August was broadcast on live television, but Refaat soon ordered the cameras out. The judge drew the anger of lawyers representing Mubarak's alleged victims after he issued a media gag order on testimony by high-profile witnesses, including Tantawi. In statements after his testimony, Tantawi said Mubarak had never ordered the shooting of protesters.
It is widely believed that the resumption of the trial will be merely procedural, with little discussion of the accusations against the former president. But lawyers supporting Mubarak are hoping to clear his name.