The Arab Spring moved to a Cairo courtroom overnight where deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak was wheeled in on a hospital bed into a cage with two of his sons to stand trial on charges of killing pro-democracy protesters and widespread corruption.
If convicted, the ailing ex-leader could get the death penalty for allegedly ordering the death of more than 800 demonstrations during the uprising earlier this year. Mubarak's sons Alaa and Gamal, and former Interior Minister Habib el-Adli, joined the ex-leader in the cage.
Prone in his bed, Mubarak pleaded not guilty.
The sometimes difficult-to-follow court procedings that aired on Egyptian state tv came as hundreds of protesters clashed outside the police headquarters where the trial is being conducted.
Mubarek, 83, is suffering from a heart condition, but it did not keep the provisional military government from putting him on trial in front of the whole country and world. The generals wanted to the country to see they are conductiung the promised trial, hoping the public display would demonstrate that the promised transition in Egypt is underway.
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