(MENAFN- SomTribune) An Egyptian court ordered the retrial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak for complicity in the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators during a 2011 uprising against his regime, overturning a previous ruling acquitting him.
The country's highest criminal court accepted appeals demanding a retrial of Mr. Mubarak and set its first session for Nov. 5, state television reported on Thursday.
Cairo's Criminal Court had dropped the murder charges against Mubarak last November, simultaneously acquitting his interior minister, Habib el Adly, and six aides.
Mr. Mubarak is the only defendant in the case who will be retried.
The men stood accused of inciting the killing of antigovernment protesters in mass demonstrations that heralded the end of Mr. Mubarak's 30-year rule.
The retrial will be the case's second, and the verdict reached will be final, according to Egyptian law.
Since 2012, Mr. Mubarak has been serving sentences issued and awaiting pending cases against him at a military hospital in Cairo.
Also on Thursday, an Egyptian court adjourned the retrial of three Al Jazeera journalists until June 11.
Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and their Australian colleague Peter Greste, who was released and deported on Feb. 1 after more than a year in prison, face charges of spreading false news and supporting the banned Islamist Muslim Brotherhood party.
Only Mr. Mohamed and Mr. Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian who relinquished his Egyptian nationality in hopes of a deportation similar to Greste's, were present in court on Thursday.
Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah Al Sisi issued a declaration in November that allows for the deportation of foreign suspects and convicts.
He deposed Muslim Brotherhood official and former President Mohammed Morsi in a coup in 2013.
The three journalists for the Qatar-based television network were arrested that December, at the height of a government crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters. They were sentenced to between seven and 10 years in prison. A retrial was ordered in January.
Mr. Fahmy and Mr. Mohamed were released on bail the following month. In May, Mr. Fahmy filed a lawsuit against his employer, accusing it of jeopardizing its journalists' safety and failing to properly support them during the trial.
During Thursday's session, the Australian Embassy issued a statement in which it said that the charges for which Mr. Greste is being tried in absentia don't fall within the scope of crimes punishable by Australian law.
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