CAIRO // An Egyptian appeals court will retry former president Hosni Mubarak over the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising, after annulling a decision to drop murder charges against the former leader.
The Court of Cassation on Thursday accepted the prosecution’s appeal against the dismissal of the murder charge levelled at Mubarak, 87, who had initially been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The court “accepts the prosecution’s appeal and has set a session for November 5 to review it,” judge Anwar El Gabry announced.
It was not immediately clear if the court would issue a new verdict then, or if that would be the start date for any retrial, according to Mubarak’s defence team.
The court also upheld the acquittal of Mubarak’s seven co-defendants – including former interior minister Habib Al Adly – who had the charges dismissed last November, said Mr Al Adly’s lawyer Essam Bastawy.
In the months following his ouster, Egypt’s interim military rulers rounded up top Mubarak-era leaders and police commanders and put them on trial, under pressure from protesters.
Most have now been acquitted, but Egyptian courts have handed down harsh mass sentences to supporters of Mubarak’s now toppled successor, Mohammed Morsi, as well as to Morsi himself.
Morsi was ousted by then army chief and current president Abdel Fattah El Sisi in July 2013 following mass protests against his turbulent one-year rule.
In 2012, a court sentenced Mubarak to life over the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 revolt. According to the official death toll, 846 people were killed during 18 days of protests.
An appeals court later overturned the verdict on technical grounds and ordered a retrial.
In November 2014 a court then dropped the murder charge against Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades until he was forced from power in 2011.
That decision sparked an outcry among the opposition, who have been targeted by a sweeping crackdown by the authorities since Morsi’s ouster, leaving hundreds dead and thousands jailed.
Youth leaders who spearheaded the 2011 revolt have also been jailed on charges of illegal protest over the past year.
Mubarak is currently being held in a military hospital in Cairo. He and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were last month sentenced to three years in jail for corruption.
* Agence France-Presse
