(CAIRO) — Hosni Mubarak waved to his supporters from inside a defendant's cage on Saturday after being wheeled into a Cairo courtroom for the first session of his retrial on charges of complicity in the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 revolt that led to his ouster. The procedural session ended quickly when the judge recused himself, referring the case to an appeals court for a replacement. Mubarak grinned slightly as he sat upright on a hospital gurney inside the defendants' cage made of iron bars and wire mesh. His once powerful two sons, Alaa and Gamal, and former interior minister, Habib el-Adly, who are currently imprisoned in separate cases, were in the cage alongside him. (MORE: After Sectarian Violence, Coptic Pope Takes On Egypt's President) Mubarak is the first Arab president to be tried and serve a prison sentence. He remains in custody at a military hospital and is additionally being investigated on accusations that he and his family pocketed state funds designated for presidential palaces. The 84-year-old ousted Egyptian leader, wearing brown-tinted glasses, had not been seen in public since his initial conviction in June 2012. Unconfirmed reports surfaced several times in the past year suggesting that he was near death. He was airlifted by a military helicopter to the court located inside a police academy once named after him. His two sons and el-Adly were driven from Tora prison. Judge Mostafa Hassan recused himself from the trial, but did not specify the conflict of interest behind the decision. As he took the bench, some lawyers shouted, demanding that he step down from the case. "Sit until you hear what the court's decision is," the judge responded. Immediately after he announced that the case would be sent to an appeals court, some lawyers began chanting, "The people demand the execution of the ousted president!" Local media reports had suggested Hassan might transfer the case to another judge. In October, he caused an uproar among Egyptian political activists when he ordered the acquittals of 25 Mubarak loyalists who had been(http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&blog=19871253&post=81472&subd=timeglobalspin&ref=&feed=1)
Via: TIME GlobalSpin