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 Before adjourning the hearing on Saturday, the judge said he and
members of the prosecution team had not finished reviewing all the
evidence in the case, which amounted to 160,000 pages.
A TV screen in the courtroom showed thousands of documents related
to the case piled up in folders and bound with string.
Mubarak, his interior minister Habib al-Adly and six other senior
security officers are accused of ordering the killings of more than
800 protesters, sowing chaos and creating a security vacuum during
the 18-day revolt. They deny the charges.
The former strongman and Adly were both sentenced to life in prison
in 2012 after being convicted in the case but an appeals court
subsequently ordered a retrial.
Many Egyptians who lived through his autocracy and crony capitalism
considered it a victory to see Mubarak behind bars.
His overthrow led to Egypt's first free leadership election but the
winner, Mohamed Mursi, was ousted last year by the army and some
Mubarak-era figures have since been released, raising fears among
activists that the old regime was regaining influence.
Mubarak, 86, arrived at the court in a medical helicopter and was
wheeled off the back on a stretcher surrounded by police clutching
rifles. He appeared with fellow defendants in a courtroom cage,
looking pale and glum and wearing sunglasses.
Outside the court at the Cairo police academy, his supporters
gathered, carrying pictures of the former airforce commander and
chanting slogans demanding his release.
Families of those killed by security forces during the uprising came
to protest.
"This delay comes in preparation for the clearing of Mubarak," said
one woman whose son died during the street revolt. "We feel like our
rights have been lost."
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Highlighting how polarized Egyptian society has become, fights broke
out between Mubarak supporters and relatives of the deceased. Police
broke up the fight and arrested two people.
The political demise of Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood at the
hands of the military means voices more sympathetic to Mubarak are
now being heard.
Mubarak told the court last month that he had not ordered the
killing of protesters and said history would vindicate him.
Adly and other Mubarak-era officials have also had their testimonies
broadcast in recent weeks, giving them a platform to rebuild their
reputations with the public.
Mubarak is unlikely to be freed, however. Though he has been given
bail in this case, he is already serving a separate three-year
sentence for embezzlement at a military hospital in the upscale
Maadi district of Cairo. The court ordered that Adly remain in
custody pending the verdict.
(Reporting by Lin Noueihed; editing by Andrew Heavens and Tom
Pfeiffer)
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