Even the most ardent in calling for his prosecution doubted until hours before the trial that the 83-year-old former president would appear. As a helicopter carried him to the courtroom, housed in a police academy that once bore his name, cheers went up from a crowd gathered outside.
"The criminal is coming!" shouted Maged Wahba, a 40-year-old lawyer.
In a tumultuous scene, a few dozen of Mr. Mubarak's supporters shared space with his opponents, at times scuffling with them and trading rocks. Some of his supporters cried. Others shouted adulation."We love you, Mr. President," some chanted.
Those sentiments were overwhelmed by the sheer symbolism of the day -- an Arab leader endowed with power once uncontested facing charges of killing his people. No modern Arab ruler has yet to be tried in public by his people in a revolution they made. And it was unclear if Mr. Mubarak's trial would have any effect on Arab leaders facing ongoing revolts, in particular Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in neighboring Libya and President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Mr. Mubarak was brought into the wood-paneled courtroom on a gurney clothed in white.
Looking somewhat frail, he remained largely expressionless in a barred cage where the accused appears in Egyptian courts. He was flanked by this two sons, Gamal and Alaa, who also face charges. Gamal held a Koran.
The Mubarak's denied all charges leveled against them.
The sight of Mr. Mubarak, a strongman who for nearly 30 years routinely imprisoned political adversaries, now being called to account in a public trial televised live transfixed Egypt and much of the Arab world. A conviction could carry the death penalty.
Only the 600 people with the permits were allowed inside, plus civil rights lawyers and a small number of the families of the alleged victims of the Mr. Mubarak's failed effort to crush the revolution.
Officials said their security plan included ways to ensure separation between the people attending the trial and the accused, to avoid any verbal or physical assaults on the defendants themselves.
The charges against Mr. Mubarak include corruption and ordering the killing of protesters. Alaa and Gamal face corruption counts. The former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, along with six of his aides, will be tried for killing and injuring protesters, and was also in the dock on Wednesday.
Mr. Mubarak had not been seen in public since he was deposed on Feb. 11. A former cancer patient, he has been in a hospital in the Sinai resort of Sharm el Sheik, his summer residence, for much of the time, and there had been persistent speculation that the trial might be postponed because he is too frail to attend.
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