Egypt on Wednesday resumed the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak after a three-month delay.

Egypt on Wednesday resumed the trial of former President

(archives)

Hosni Mubarak after a three-month delay.

Transported by ambulance to court, Mubarak risks the death sentence if he is found guilty in several crimes including involvement in the killings of some 850 people who died during the popular uprising that overthrew him in February.

State television showed the ailing former strongman, who was dressed in white and covered in a blanket, being wheeled out of an ambulance on a stretcher.

More than 5,000 policemen were deployed to secure the proceedings held at a police academy in the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday.

A few pro-Mubarak supporters held banners of the former president, while families of the victims that died in protests carried pictures of their deceased relatives.

Mubrak has been since his fall in custody at a military hospital in Cairo.

THREE-MONTH PAUSE
The trial came to a halt when lawyers representing those killed asked that presiding judge Ahmed Refaat be replaced, a request that was subsequently rejected on December 7.

Mubarak's first hearing on August 3 was broadcast live on television, but Refaat soon ordered the cameras out.

Since the trial was adjourned, Egypt has been thrown into renewed turmoil with deadly clashes between the army and people protesting against the military rulers who took over when the long-time president stepped down.