Ex-Egyptian President Mubarak faces third trial

CAIRO - Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will be on trial for the third time on Monday along with his two sons and former Interior Minister Habib el-Adli, while a senior police official and three other officers will testify in the trial.

According to Gamal Eid, a lawyer representing 16 of the roughly 850 people killed in the unrest early this year, one of the witnesses is a senior police officer, General Hussein Saeed Mohamed Mursi, who worked in the operations room of the police force during the turmoil.

He had been accused in a decision issued by the general prosecutor of deleting those recordings, but he later turned into a witness, Eid said.

Three other witnesses called by the court are also police officers who were in the operations room during the 18-day protest. The court named them as Emad Badr Saeed, Bassim Mohamed el-Otaify and Mahmoud Galal Abdel Hamid.

Mubarak is the first toppled Arab leader who went on trial in person in court. During the first two sessions, the former Egyptian leader and his two sons denied all the charges against them.

On Monday, the court is set to investigate whether the orders to fire on the crowd during the January-February unrest were given solely by the interior ministry, or if Mubarak was also implicated.

Ten Kuwaiti lawyers had decided on Saturday to defend Mubarak to show their gratitude to his support to Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion in 1990. Four of them will be allowed in the courtroom Monday.

Mubarak is charged with involvement in the killing of protesters and misuse of power, which may lead to a death penalty.