Riots Break Out as Mubarak Trial Resumes

Officials expected to testify they were ordered to fire on protesters
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 5, 2011 9:05 AM CDT
Hosni Mubarak Trial: Riots Break Out as Proceedings Resume
Anti-Mubarak protesters burn a portrait of the former Egyptian president outside the courtroom where his trial resumed off-camera on September 5, 2011.   (Getty Images)

Protesters thronged the Cairo courthouse where Hosni Mubarak's trial resumed today, scuffling with riot police, who struggled to contain them, reports the BBC. Anti-Mubarak protesters burned the former president's image in effigy and protested the judge's ban on cameras in the courtroom, while Mubarak supporters were equally fervent in his defense. "Why humiliate the president who protected us?" cried one.

Particularly angry over the television ban, notes the AP, were family members of those Mubarak is charged with killing. "People are very frustrated," said the father of one victim. "We said OK when the judge decided to ban the broadcast of the trial, but we want to see it ourselves." Inside the courtroom was no less tumultuous, with lawyers screaming at the judges, prompting a brief halt in the proceedings. Top military officials are expected to testify that they were ordered to fire on protesters today, in what is being touted as the real beginning of Mubarak's trial. (More Hosni Mubarak stories.)

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