Mubarak's retrial adjourned till November 16

Cairo Criminal Court on Monday adjourned the retrial of former president Hosni Mubarak, his two sons and top aides for hearings on November 16, 17 and 18 over charges of graft and violence against protesters. The court, chaired by Justice Mahmoud Al-Rashidi, ordered the Public Prosecution to summon more witnesses including ex-prime minister Ahmad Nazif and former assistant foreign minister Wafaa Nasim on November 16, the state-run MENA news agency reported. On November 17, it will hear testimonies of former first assistant minister of interior Mortadha Abdulrahman, former director of the Interior Ministry's general dept. for follow-up Ahmad Omar Abus-Saud. On November 18 former commander of the military police Maj.-Gen. Hamdi Badin and head of the military investigations dept. will testify before the court on the violent events that took place between January 25 and 31, 2011. The coming session will be held in camera as the recent ones due to national security considerations, according to today's court verdict. The court ordered that defendants who were released be brought back and that former minister of interior Habib Al-Adly - a key defendant in the case, be remanded in custody pending the coming session. Today's session heard testimonies of ex-prime minister Atef Obeid, former minister of interior Maj.-Gen. Ahmad Jamal-Uddin and incumbent Minister of Petroleum Sharif Ismail. Besides Mubarak and his two sons Alaa and Jamal, the defendants include former interior minister Habib Al-Adly and six of his aides, former prime minister Nazif and Hussein Salem - a business tycoon and Mubarak's confidant. They face charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during the revolution of January 25, 2011, profiteering from fraudulent sale of natural gas to Israel, money laundering, and squandering state funds. This is a retrial of the icons of the former regime; it started in last May but was adjourned several times