admin“The court has ruled to accept the appeal filed by the defendants … and orders a retrial,” Judge Ahmed Ali Abdel Rahman read out the ruling during yesterday’s brief hearing.
No date has been set for the start of their retrial.
Mubarak and Habib al-Adli, the former interior minister, were sentenced to life in prison in June last year in a court ruling that held them responsible for the deaths of protesters killed by security forces trying to put down the uprising.
Crowds of Mubarak supporters attending the trial cheered.
The 84-year-old former leader was moved from prison to a military hospital in late December after breaking ribs in a fall.
The ruling came one day after a prosecutor placed a new detention order on Mubarak over gifts worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars he and other regime officials allegedly received from Egypt’s leading newspaper as a show of loyalty while he was in power, reported the Associated Press.
The public funds prosecutor ordered Mubarak held for 15 days pending the completion of the investigation.
“The retrial will be based on the same evidence used in the previous trial. No new evidence will be added to the case,” Mohamed Abdel Razek, one of Mubarak’s lawyers, told the Reuters news agency.
He added that the new panel of judges could consider Mubarak’s health when issuing a verdict.
The court has also ordered a retrial of al-Adli’s aides.
Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said: “The court today … has decided to accept both the appeals of Hosni Mubarak and other co-defendants but also accept the appeals of the prosecutor.
“His appeal in the killing of the protesters has been accepted but also the prosecutor’s appeal against his acquittal on corruption charges has been accepted and none of this is a surprise to the court, which is known to be one of the top and best courts in the country. It is very meticulous and goes through every single detail.”
Neither Mubarak nor other defendants were in court, said the Al Jazeera correspondent.
“Currently he is in a military hospital after suffering cracks to his ribs,” she said. — Al Jazeera
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