The toppled Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, is in court to answer charges of corruption and unlawful killing
guardian.co.uk
Hosni Mubarak on trial Photograph: Aljazeera
10.04am: My colleague Nour Ali (a pseudonym) sends this update on the situation in Syria, where the siege of Hama is continuing into its fourth day. She says that electricity, internet and phone lines have been cut to the whole city from late last night, according to activists and one escaped resident. Tanks and heavy gunfire started around 5am, the resident who left to a nearby city said, but getting further news is difficult. There was a second demonstration in Mohajireen, close to the presidential residence in Damascus, last night, suggesting the area may be joining the fray. The Local Co-ordination Committees, which organise and report on protests in Syria, are reporting on Hama on their Facebook page. Five hours ago they reported "very heavy gunshots and random shelling in Hama".
Nour and Ian Black wrote about yesterday's events in Syria here. Seven people were killed across the country, bringing to at least 140 the number of fatalities since Sunday, when the government launched an offensive in Hama on the eve of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said residents on the outskirts of Hama reported seeing lines of tanks heading towards the city early today. Blasts were heard soon afterwards.
Reuters reported that dozens were wounded when demonstrators in the western Damascus suburb of Mouadhamiya, the northeastern city of Hasaka, and the port city of Latakia came under fire after the nightly prayers yesterday.
"The United States should impose crippling sanctions in response to the murder of civilians by troops under the orders of President [Bashar al-]Assad," US senator Mark Kirk, a Republican, said in introducing legislation in Washington to target firms that invest in Syria's energy sector, purchase its oil or sell gasoline. Kirk was joined in sponsoring the bill by Democratic senator Kirsten Gillibrand and independent senator Joseph Lieberman, who said it was time to push for "a democratic transition that reflects the will of the Syrian people".
The UN security council negotiated for a second day yesterday over a western-backed draft resolution condemning Syria, before adjourning until today. Diplomats said significant differences remained over the text and it had not been decided whether the end result should be a resolution or a less weighty council statement.
9.54am: These are the details of the defendants and the charges.
Hosni Mubarak
Former president of Egypt.
Charged with corruption and the unlawful killing of protesters in the uprising against him earlier this year. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
Alaa Mubarak
Son of the ex-president.
Charged with corruption
Gamal Mubarak
Son of the ex-president.
Also charged with corruption.
Habib El-Adly
Former interior minister.
Charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the deaths of those killed during the uprising.
Six others described as senior police officers or former interior ministry officials are also charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the uprising. We'll have more on them when we get it.
9.44am: The judge has just tried to speed up one of the defence lawyers (not representing the Mubaraks) whose speech was dragging on. The lawyer was appealing for more defendants to be added to the trial, presumably to point the finger at others. The judge requested that the lawyer hand over his demands in writing rather than reciting them all. The lawyer said he wanted to make his points verbally but the judge said: "We do not want to waste time."
9.39am: A picture has been posted online of Gamal Mubarak checking the time inside the cage in the courtroom as a lawyer reads a long list of names
9.36am: You can watch al-Jazeera's live stream of Hosni Mubarak's trial here.
9.26am: The appearance of Mubarak behind bars on a stretcher has not won any sympathy for him from participants in the Egyptian revolution which toppled him, judging by the reaction on Twitter.
Twitter.
@mosaaberizing
Even on a bed in a cage, Mubarak's eye seem to be filled with arrogance, hands resting on chin. Unbelievable. #MubarakTrial
@lilianwagdy
mubarak is obviously faking sorry you get zero sympathy from me dude
9.15am: While the judge is going through the formalities - he is currently identifying the various lawyers in court - here are some useful links.
Simon Tisdall's profile of Hosni Mubarak for the Guardian, from February:
Mubarak's attitude to his people was by turns paternalistic, aloof and repressive. Though he claimed to love his fellow Egyptians, he did not trust them, maintaining the harsh emergency laws imposed after Sadat's assassination throughout his reign. Leading an unswervingly secular, pro-western regime, he demonised even moderate Islamist parties and made of the Muslim Brotherhood a bogeyman with which to scare the Americans.
Yet, in rare interviews he implied that he believed he held some sort of divine mandate, that he ruled through and by God's will. After he survived an attempt on his life by Gema'a Islamiya (Muslim Group) terrorists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in June 1995, one of up to eight attempted assassinations over 30 years, he returned to Cairo proclaiming that God had saved him through an act of divine providence, as in 1981.
Imperious, abstemious (he does not smoke or drink), and intensely private, he suggested Egyptians were lucky to have him in charge. Without him, he said repeatedly, there would be only chaos. And this claim to ensure stability was, in truth, his entire electoral manifesto.
The Washington Post has a timeline of Mubarak's rise and rule.
The New York Times has details of the security arrangements for today.
The Ministry of interior and the Army said 5,000 soldiers and officers backed by 50 tanks and armored vehicles would be deployed along the route where Mr. Mubarak and his co-defendants, including his two sons, would be transported to court as well as the court itself, a Cairo police academy. Officials said barbed wire would ring the police academy to stop intruders, and security forces would surround the facility's outer fence.
No one will be allowed inside except the 600 people with the permits, plus civil rights lawyers and a small number of the families of victims of the Mr. Mubarak's failed effort to crush the revolution.
Officials said their security plan included ways to ensure separation between the people attending the trial and the accused, to avoid any verbal or physical assaults on the defendants themselves.
9.07am: The judge begins by calling out the names of the accused. They reply in turn "I am present, your honour." Although, for some reason he didn't read out the names of the Mubaraks.
9.03am: Hosni Mubarak's two sons, Gamal and Alaa, have arrived in the metal cage in the Egyptian courtroom. A glimpse can be seen of the former dictator in a holding cell, lying on a stretcher. He appeared to be picking his nose.
The judge is opening the proceedings.
8.59am: I just spoke to the Guardian's Jack Shenker, who is in downtown Cairo. Jack covered the Egyptian revolution and was initially granted permission to be one of the few foreign journalists inside the courtroom before being denied access by the security services.
He said the headlines in Egyptian papers this morning included "Judgment day" and "The awaited day".
There's been a real sense as to whether he would actually turn up in his white prison overalls in this specially constructed metal cage which all Egyptian criminal defendants are supposed to stand in when they're in court. And the sight of this once mighty dictator so publicly humiliated and so brought down to earth is one which a huge amount of Egyptians are relishing.
Usually in important criminal cases there's an adjournment early on once the trial starts. The first day is given over to procedural matters, technical arguments by both the defence and prosecution. The lawyers usually ask for an adjournment to review the evidence and the judge will often adjourn the case for a month. Now, this judge has promised that this won't happen...Obviously any dealys will be very politically sensitive. Protesters have already complained that the ruling army generals have been delaying this trial for too long, putting off holding Mubarak to account so there's a lot of pressure to get this trial under way.
_
8.29am: A picture has been posted online that is said to be the first of the former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, outside the ambulance, arriving for his trial.
8.25am: There is a large screen outside the courtroom where supporters and opponents of the former Egyptian president are currently throwing stones at each other. The two appear to be separated by barriers.
Early in the morning, some 50 of Mubarak's supporters chanting slogans and holding portraits of the former leader gathered outside the venue, AP reports.
"We will demolish and burn the prison if they convict Mubarak," they screamed at hundreds of police and army troops backed by armoured personnel carriers.
8.19am: Welcome to Middle East Live. It is a historic day in Egypt where Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt with an iron fist for 30 years, goes on trial to face charges of corruption and unlawful killing.
He was brought down by a revolution that started just over six months ago and today will appear in the dock behind the bars of a specially constructed metal cage.
An ambulance believed to be carrying Mubarak has arrived outside the court, where crowds are gathering to witness this momentous event.
We will be bringing you updates on the trial as well as news from the rest of the Middle East.
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