Mubarak back in Egypt court over protest deaths

An Egyptian court on Saturday resumed the trial of toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak, who is accused of complicity in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising against his rule.

State television broadcast footage of Mubarak appearing in the court in a wheelchair. He was dressed in a jacket, striped shirt and wearing dark sunglasses.

It was his second appearance in the court since his release from Cairo's Tora prison last month.

The 85-year-old former president faces an array of charges, including complicity in the deaths of some 850 people killed in the Arab Spring-inspired uprising against him, and corruption.

He had been convicted in June last year of complicity in the deaths of protesters and sentenced to life in prison, but a retrial was ordered in January after he appealed.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of death.

Lawyers defending Mubarak, his interior minister Habib al-Adly, his two sons Ala and Gamal and six security chiefs argue Islamists were primarily responsible for violence during the 2011 revolution.

Mubarak's ouster was a pivotal moment in regional democratic upheavals that in Egypt led to an Islamist government, which itself lasted only a year before a military coup ousted it.

The former strongman has been held under house arrest at a military hospital since he left Tora jail last month.

Since his first court appearance in August 2011, Mubarak has been treated for a range of ailments including a heart condition and depression. He was even reported to have slipped into a coma last year.