Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is seen in the courtroom for his trial at the Police Academy in Cairo, in this still image taken from video August 3, 2011. Mubarak was wheeled into a courtroom cage in a hospital bed on Wednesday to face trial for killing protesters — an image that thrilled those who overthrew him and must have chilled other Arab autocrats facing popular uprisings. If convicted, Mubarak could face the death penalty. REUTERS/Egypt TV via Reuters TV

CAIRO – Egypt’s ex-president Hosni Mubarak was wheeled into court on a stretcher on Wednesday and denied murder and graft charges, as sporadic clashes erupted outside between his supporters and his foes.

The former strongman, looking pale and dressed in white, pleaded not guilty from a metal-barred cage to the premeditated murder of protesters who took to the streets to topple his regime in an uprising that erupted on January 25.

He and his sons Alaa and Gamal also denied all corruption charges.

After a four-hour hearing — the former strongman’s first public appearance since he resigned on February 11 — the trial of the Mubaraks was adjourned until August 15.

Former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six of his deputies were also in the dock in the same case, and they are due in court again on Thursday.

Judge Ahmed Refaat, presiding over the Cairo Criminal Court, said Mubarak would be staying at the International Medical Centre, a hospital on the outskirts of Cairo, until the next hearing.

In response to a request by the defense team, Refaat agreed to allow an oncologist to follow up on Mubarak’s health during his hospital stay.

Alaa and Gamal seemed composed throughout the hearing and appeared to take turns to shield their ailing father from the television cameras, leaning down regularly to talk to him.

The trial of Mubarak, whose spectacular downfall sent shockwaves across the region, was a key demand of the uprising.

One civil society lawyer called for Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and Mubarak’s long-time defence minister, to appear as a witness in the trial.

Lawyers jostled for microphones during the hearing that was for the most part conducted in an orderly manner.

However, outside the courtroom clashes erupted between loyalists and foes of the former president, with several people injured.

Pro-Mubarak protesters carried pictures of him, while his opponents held up posters of the former president behind a noose, and security forces stepped in repeatedly to separate both sides.

The crowd, including families of victims killed during the uprising, had been watching the trial on a large screen outside the Police Academy — once called the Mubarak Police Academy.

Judge Refaat last week vowed a speedy trial and said that the sessions would be held on consecutive days.

Until the last minute, it was widely believed Mubarak wouldn’t show or that the trial would open and then be adjourned indefinitely. The hearing has gripped the nation, and Cairo’s usually bustling streets were abnormally quiet during the proceedings.

Mubarak, 83, was flown to the capital earlier from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where he had been in custody in hospital being treated for a heart condition.

Security was tight, with barbed wire outside the Police Academy and more than a dozen riot police trucks securing the entrances, an AFP reporter said.

The trial is being held in an auditorium fitted with a large black cage to hold the defendants, including Adly on whom Mubarak relied to quell the revolt, and six police chiefs.

Businessman Hussein Salem, a close associate of the Mubarak’s, is being tried in absentia.

The defendants are accused of stealing millions of dollars from the state and ordering the killing of anti-regime protesters during the uprising. Mubarak will also face some relatives of the victims killed during the revolt, allegedly on his orders.

For weeks, it seemed likely that Mubarak, who doctors say refused to leave his hospital bed, would be tried in Sharm el-Sheikh, but the justice ministry announced last week the trial would be held in Cairo.

His lawyer Farid al-Deeb claimed that Mubarak suffers from cancer and went into a coma last month, which the hospital denied. One of his doctors told AFP the ex-president was stable, but extremely depressed and weak after refusing food for several days.

Deeb’s announcements appear to have been intended to increase sympathy for Mubarak and spare him the indignity of appearing in the defendants’ cage.

But the military, which assumed power after Mubarak’s resignation, is keen to prove it harbors no lingering loyalties to the former president.

The trial is the latest in a string of legal proceedings against Mubarak-era officials. Several ministers have already been given jail terms in corruption cases, including Adly, already sentenced to 12 years for graft.

Mubarak is the second Arab leader to be overthrown in the unrest that has swept North Africa and the Middle East since the beginning of this year, after Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

On Tuesday, international rights groups urged a “fair and transparent” trial.

“This trial presents a historic opportunity for Egypt to hold a former leader and his inner circle to account for crimes committed during their rule,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said: “If these proceedings scrupulously reflect the international fair trial standards, it will embody a clean break with the record of impunity that characterized Hosni Mubarak’s rule, contribute to a new and hopeful chapter in Egypt’s history, and set an important regional precedent.” 

MEO