Minister: Mubarak can travel for trial

CAIRO, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is healthy enough to travel to Cairo to stand trial, Health Minister Amr Helmy said Monday.

A timetable for Mubarak to travel from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik for the trial, scheduled for Wednesday, hadn't been determined, al-Masry al-Youm reported.

Also scheduled to be tried at the Police Academy are Mubarak's sons, Alaa and Gamal, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, six former assistants and businessman Hussein Salem.

Helmy said Cabinet officials will work with the health and interior ministries to transport Mubarak and will ensure that a medical team and healthcare are provided for him during the trip.

The health minister said Mubarak's health hasn't changed recently and he still suffers from depression and has a low appetite.

Mubarak, 83, a cancer survivor, has been held in custody in a hospital in Sharm el-Sheik since suffering a reported heart attack during his first interrogation in early April.

Charges against Mubarak include corruption and ordering the killing of protesters. His sons face corruption counts. The former interior minister along with his six aides will be tried for killing 850 and injuring about 6,000 protesters.

Salem is being tried in absentia because he fled to Spain. Egypt is demanding his extradition.

Mubarak's trial will be broadcast live and daily on state TV and be conducted in a hall large enough to hold 600 people, trial judge Ahmed Refaat said.

Protesters have complained about what they considered the slow pace of prosecution of Mubarak and the other officials in the killing of about 850 demonstrators during Egypt's 18-day uprising. They also decried what they considered a lack of public access to trials.

"The court is fully convinced of the Egyptian people's right to follow what happens in the courtroom in terms of legal procedures," Refaat said Sunday, adding the live coverage on state TV would "reassure people of the [credibility of the] process," the official Middle East News Agency reported.