Mubarak retrial date set

State television and the Egyptian news agency MENA both reported on Sunday that Hosni Mubarak would face a new trial starting on April 13.

Mubarak, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six other security officials from the former Egyptian government will all be tried in the fresh case.

The former president was sentenced to life in prison last June for his role in the deaths of more than 800 protesters during the 2011 popular uprising that led to his resignation within two weeks. In January, however, the Court of Cassation upheld Mubarak's appeal, agreeing that the prosecution's case against him had not been strong enough for conviction.

Critics of the initial trial against Mubarak said that the evidence offered was often circumstantial and failed to definitively prove police involvement, with some key prosecution witnesses appearing to exonerate the defendants.

The 84-year-old ex-president is currently in a military hospital near Cairo, where he is receiving medical treatment.

Egypt's current president, Mohamed Morsi, has sought to tread a fine line on the sensitive issue. In his election campaign last year, Morsi promised that government officials would be granted retrials if judges ruled in their favor. He also set up a fact-finding commission charged with investigating the violence during Egypt's uprising, seeking a clearer picture of who ordered and carried out attacks on protesters.

The report, which is classed as confidential and has not been published in full, is said to establish that police used live ammunition against protesters. It also found that 864 people were killed and more than 6,000 wounded during the unrest.

msh/mkg (AFP, AP, dpa)