Mubarak to face a retrial after appeal victory against life term

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was ordered to face a retrial yesterday after winning an appeal against his life sentence on charges that he failed to prevent the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that toppled his regime nearly two years ago.

The ruling read out by judge Ahmed Ali Abdel-Rahman during the brief court session also overturned the conviction of Mubarak’s security chief Habib el-Adly, who is serving a life sentence for his conviction on the same charges. He too will be retried.

Mubarak will not walk free, as he is being held for investigation on other charges. The defendants were not present in the courtroom. The 84-year-old ex-president, currently in a military hospital, was reported last year to have been close to death, but the current state of his health is unknown.

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Mubarak’s defence lawyers had argued that the former president did not know of the killings, but an Egyptian fact-finding mission has determined that he watched the uprising against him unfold through a live TV feed at his palace.

The mission’s report could hold both political opportunities and dangers for Mubarak’s successor, Islamist Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. A new Mubarak trial would be popular, since many Egyptians were angered he was convicted for failing to stop the killings, rather than ordering the crackdown.

But the report also implicates the military and security officials in the protesters’ deaths. Any move to prosecute them could spark a backlash from the powerful police and others who still hold positions under Morsi’s government.