BREAKING NEWS

Egypt's ex-president Mubarak denies killing protesters as final retrial begins

CAIRO - Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak denied on Thursday involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule as his final retrial in the case began.
Mubarak, 88, was originally sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators, sowing chaos and creating a security vacuum during an 18-day revolt which began in Jan. 2011, but an appeals court ordered a retrial.
That retrial culminated in 2014 in an Egyptian court dropping the case. But the public prosecution appealed the decision and ordered another retrial by Egypt's top appeals court.
That began on Thursday, with the judge reading Mubarak the charges, in which he and his interior minister were accused of providing vehicles and weapons used to assault protesters and failing to take action to prevent deaths.
Sitting in a wheelchair in the defendant's cage without his trademark dark sunglasses, Mubarak responded: "It did not happen."