Egypt’s high court has granted a request from prosecutors to have the country’s former President, Hosni Mubarak, stand trial again for the deaths of hundreds of protesters during a 2011 uprising, state media reported Thursday.
The decision overturns the ruling of a lower court in November 2014, when Mubarak was cleared of the charges. Mubarak, who is 87, is currently in a military hospital.
On separate charges in May 2015, the Cairo Court of Appeals upheld a three-year sentence imposed on Mubarak on corruption charges. But it gave him consideration for time already served.
But in a dim turn of events for Mubarak, the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest criminal court, said he should be retried on charges of unlawfully killing protesters during the uprising — a revolt that ultimately forced him from power. But an estimated 800 civilians were killed, according to the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, a nongovernmental organization devoted to free expression.
Acquitals of other defendants upheld
The court ordered that Mubarak’s retrial begin on November 5. There will be no appeal of the verdict.
Mubarak was sentenced in 2012 to life in prison for complicity in the killings of protesters during the 18-day January 2011 revolt that ended his 30-year autocratic rule.
The court on Thursday upheld the acquittals of other defendants in the case, however, including former Interior Minister Habib El-Adly and six security aides.