Sunday Times 2
Verdict due in murder retrial of Egypt’s Mubarak
View(s):CAIRO, Nov 29 (AFP) -An Egyptian court is to deliver today its verdict in the murder retrial of former president Hosni Mubarak, almost four years after he was overthrown in a popular uprising.
Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak (C) is wheeled on a bed from an ambulance to a medical helicopter outside Maadi military hospital as he heads to the court in Cairo for his trial on November 29 (AFP)
Ahead of the ruling, security was beefed up around the court at the sprawling police academy on the outskirts of Cairo, with 5,000 police deployed, the official MENA news agency reported, citing a senior official.
Mubarak, 86, is accused along with seven of his former police commanders of involvement in the killing of hundreds of demonstrators during the 2011 revolt that ended his three-decade rule.
An appeals court overturned an initial life sentence for Mubarak in 2012 on a technicality.
The new verdict was initially scheduled for September 27, but chief judge Mahmud Kamel al-Rashidi postponed it, saying he had not finished writing the reasoning after a retrial that saw thousands of case files presented.
The court is also due to rule on corruption charges levelled against Mubarak and his two sons.
The sons, Alaa and Gamal, both arrived at the court on Saturday ahead of the verdict, along with co-accused former interior minister Habib al-Adly, a government spokesman told AFP.
If acquitted, Mubarak would not be released because he is serving a three-year sentence in a separate corruption case, a judicial official said.