EGYPT ON TRIAL

Egypt’s former intelligence chief and vice president Omar Suleiman, began giving testimony yesterday at the trial of deposed president Hosni Mubarak, who is charged with conspiring to kill protesters.

Mr Suleiman is among a list of senior or former officials to be called as witnesses. Their testimonies could be decisive in determining whether Mubarak, who ruled for three decades, is convicted.

Presiding judge Ahmed Refaat ordered a news blackout for reasons of national security, so witnesses’ testimonies would not be made public.

Mr Suleiman was made vice-president in the final days of Mubarak’s rule in a bid to quell protests, but demonstrations continued and Mubarak was forced out of office on 11 February.

The move to bar the media has angered many Egyptians who have demanded a transparent trial. Images of the first two of Mubarak’s trial sessions were broadcast live. Cameras have since been barred but journalists attended other sessions.

Mubarak, 83, has been attending the trial hearings, that began on 3 August, on a stretcher inside a cage in the Cairo court. He has been receiving hospital treatment since April, when he was first questioned.