Mubarak trial adjourned to September 7

Cairo, Sep 6: The trial of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was on Monday adjourned to September 7 as a top police general and three other key witness made crucial depositions in a court.

Monday's session was the third since the trial opened on August 3. The court heard one witness point a finger of blame at the chief of anti-riot forces for dozens of deaths in Egypt's revolution.

The court is investigating whether the orders to fire on the crowds were solely given by the interior ministry or the president.

Judge Ahmed Refaat, the presiding judge in the trial of Mubarak, ordered the trial be adjourned to Wednesday to hear the testimonies of prosecution witnesses.

Four police officers took the witness stand, including Hussein Saeed Mursi who headed the anti-riot police''s communications department at the time of the uprising.

Mursi said, that General Ahmed Ramzi, head of anti-riot forces, gave "clear instructions to protect the interior ministry and deal with the demonstrators with automatic weapons."

Ramzi is one of the accused in the trial along with Mubarak, former interior minister Habib al-Adly and other police officials. Mubarak's two sons Alaa and Gamal are being tried on graft charges, as well as their father.

Presiding judge Refaat cross examined communications director at the Interior Ministry Central Security Sector Major General Hussein Moussa about the events that took place between January 25 and February 11.

At the beginning of his testimony, Moussa told Judge Refaat that he was responsible for following up all communications of the Central Security Forces all over Egypt. He said he heard an order to use machine guns against protesters on January 28.

PTI