Mubarak fails to attend court hearing in Egypt

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has failed to attend a court hearing in which he was due to testify with regards to events that led to a prison break during the January 2011 revolution.

Egypt’s deposed President Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected civilian leader, and 26 other senior Muslim Brotherhood officials are being tried in the case.

Mubarak was scheduled to testify before the Cairo Criminal Court yesterday but did not attend. Mubarak’s lawyer, Fareed Deeb, told the court that his client is still a member of the Egyptian Air Force and if the court wants him to testify it should address the armed forces, a Judicial source said.

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Mubarak’s lawyer called for the case to be postponed until his client is appropriately summoned, stressing that Mubarak is keen to testify.

However, a representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office said the National Security Apparatus has informed Mubarak of the court’s request at his home east of Cairo because he was no longer a member of the military.  The court was adjourned until 26 December.

In November 2016, the Court of Cassation overturned the 25-year death sentence and life imprisonment issued by the Cairo Criminal Court in June 2015 against Morsi and 26 others in the case and ordered a retrial.