
Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak, center, and his sons Gamal, left and Alaa, right, sit inside a defendant's cage during a hearing in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, March 27, 2014 (Photo: AP)
Egypt's top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, accepted on Thursday grounds for appeal in the trial of former president Hosni Mubarak for the killing of protestors, a charge which was dismissed by a court ruling in November, state television channel, Nile News reported.
The 135-page report issued by Barakat's office enumerates 32 issues to challenge in front of the Court of Cassation, the highest appeal court in Egypt.
In November, a Cairo Criminal court dropped charges of killing protestors against Mubarak, saying it lacked the legal basis to bring a criminal case. The court has also acquitted former interior minister Habib El-Adly and six others aides who worked during Mubarak’s rule on the same charge.
Right after the ruling, Egypt’s top prosecutor ordered an appeal, citing a "legal flaw" in the criminal court’s verdict issued on 29 November. According to Egyptian law, the prosecutor’s office should submit all necessary appeal documents to the Court of Cassation within 60 days of the verdict.
Grounds attached to the appeal that will be sent to the Court of Cassation include deficiencies in causation and reasoning, mistakes in applying and interpreting the law, invalidity and error in attribution and violation of what's been proved in documents.
While Mubarak's supporters hailed the acquittal verdict, many of his opponents expressed their anger, with hundreds protesting in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of an 18-day uprising in 2011 that ended the autocrat's 30-year reign.
Also in November, the court ruled that the statute of limitations had expired on the charges against Mubarak, his two sons and businessman Hussein Salem, on charges of profiteering from illegal gifts of villas.
Mubarak and the well-known businesspeople were acquitted from charges of corruption related to exporting Egyptian natural gas to Israel at below market rates.
The 86-year-old former president was convicted last May of embezzling public funds allocated annually for the upkeep of presidential palaces, and received a three-year prison sentence; which ended last year.
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