Mubarak is charged with complicity in the killing of more than 800 protesters during the uprising that toppled his 29-year regime last year.
The 83-year-old ailing Mubarak was brought by helicopter to the Cairo courthouse from a hospital where he is held in custody. He was then taken into the defendants' cage on a gurney, wearing dark sunglasses and covered by a green blanket.
Another Cairo court on Thursday acquitted five policemen of charges of killing five protesters in the capital's el-Sayedah Zeinab district during the Jan. 25-Feb. 11 uprising. The court said three of the defendants were not at the site of the killings while the other two fired on protesters in self defense.
