Hosni Mubarak retrial verdict due





















Hosni Mubarak









Mr Mubarak insisted he was innocent in a court statement in August








An Egyptian court is due to return a verdict in the retrial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on charges of corruption and killing protesters during the 2011 uprising.

Mubarak, 86, is on trial alongside his sons and a former interior minister.

He was initially found guilty of the charges in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison, but a court later overturned the conviction on technical grounds.

Mubarak ruled Egypt for almost 30 years before being ousted in the uprising.

He stood down after weeks of unrest ended in the deaths of hundreds of protesters across the country.

The current retrial began in April 2013, and has been adjourned several times since.


Changing evidence

In August, Mubarak was allowed to give a court-room speech broadcast on Egyptian television.

In the speech, he defended his human rights record and said he did his best to fulfil his duties as president.

“I spent my whole life defending Egypt and its sons. I say before God, you and the people that I have spent my life fighting the enemies of the country,” he said.

Commentators say that Mubarak could be acquitted after several witnesses changed their evidence in his favour.

Mubarak is already serving a three-year prison sentence for embezzlement of public funds.

In August, a court ordered Mubarak’s release from prison and transfer to a military hospital in Cairo, where he is being held.

He was previously found guilty of the charge relating to killing protesters in 2012 along with former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, and sentenced to life in prison.

But in January 2013 the Court of Cassation upheld an appeal by the two men against their convictions on technical grounds and ordered a retrial.


Hosni Mubarak waves to his supporters outside the Maadi Military Hospital in Cairo (4 May 2014)Mubarak is currently being held under house arrest at the Maadi Military Hospital

His sons Alaa and Gamal are currently serving four-year prison terms for embezzlement of state funds.

Together with their father they were also fined $3m (£1.8m) and ordered to repay the $17.6m they were accused of stealing.