Trial for former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to kick off

Mubarak, 83, arrived in Cairo from a Sharm el-Sheikh hospital where he was being treated for a heart condition on Wednesday. He currently faces charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters - a charge that carries the death penalty.

Outside the trial venue, scuffles broke out between hundreds of supporters and opponents of the ex-president, with hundreds of white-clad police and riot police with shields and helmets reportedly intervening to separate demonstrators who were hurling stones and bottles at each other.

Some 3,000 soldiers and police have been drafted in to maintain order at Cairo's police academy for the trial.

His sons Alaa and Gamal, ex-Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six former other officials will also face court charges.

It was originally going to be held in a Cairo convention centre but the authorities moved the venue to a temporary courtroom set up inside the academy because of security concerns.

A cage for the defendants has been built and an estimated 600 people are expected to watch the proceedings.

The former Egyptian leader resigned on 11 February, after 18 days of protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, in which some 850 people were killed, and was flown to Sharm el-Sheikh hospital for treatment.

Mubarak's lawyer insists the former president is seriously ill.

The BBC reports that many Egyptians are sceptical about this and believe the military does not want to see the former president humiliated.

One compromise could be to keep the former president in the hospital wing of the academy, and try him there rather than in the cage in the courtroom - but this could trigger street protests.

It is a very tense moment for Egypt, and if Mubarak does not appear in court there could be further serious confrontations on the streets,

"I don't think anyone has any illusions at the moment that the trial would actually be a real, fair trial," protester Nariman Yousseff was reported as saying.

"We're all waiting to see what's going to happen, how they're going to get out of it, because it's been pretty clear and it's become even clearer in the last few days that... the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who are in charge at the moment, do not really have any intention of fulfilling the revolution's demands."

Over the past month there have been renewed sit-in protests in Tahrir Square by people angry with the slow pace of change in the country.

Among their demands to the military council in charge has been the call for speedier trial for former regime officials.

On Monday and Tuesday, police backed by army troops moved in to clear the last few protesters from square.

The former interior minister, who is going on trial with Mubarak on Wednesday, was sentenced to 12 years in jail in May for money-laundering and profiteering.