Egypt's Mubarak arrives at court for murder verdict

Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak arrived at court Saturday for the verdict in his murder retrial over the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising that unseated him.

Mubarak, 86, was flown to the court in a Cairo suburb by helicopter from a military hospital, state media said, with the verdict and sentence due to be delivered simultaneously.

Seven of his former security commanders also stand accused in connection with the demonstrator deaths.

The court will also rule on corruption charges against Mubarak and his two sons Alaa and Gamal.

Mubarak was overthrown in February 2011 after an 18-day uprising, ending his three-decade rule and ushering in a period of turmoil that eventually led to the ouster of his Islamist successor Mohamed Morsi last year.

An appeals court overturned an initial life sentence for Mubarak in 2012 on a technicality.

The new verdict was initially scheduled for September 27, but chief judge Mahmud Kamel al-Rashidi postponed it, saying he had not finished writing the reasoning after a retrial that saw thousands of case files presented.

If acquitted, Mubarak would not be released because he is serving a three-year sentence in a separate corruption case, a judicial official said ahead of the verdict.