Egypt's Public Prosecutor says he has referred the former interior minister and four other officers for trial on charges of killing protestors during the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
More than 360 people died in the uprising and thousands were injured when police fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas at peaceful protestors.
The former interior minister, Habib al-Adli, who is already facing trial for wasting public funds and money laundering, is accused of ordering police to open fire at demonstrators.
Separately, Egypt approved a law yesterday that will ease curbs that choked political life under deposed President Mubarak, opening the door for the formation of new parties that will compete in elections this year.
The law is expected to result in a plethora of new parties, including one to be established by the Muslim Brotherhood - an Islamist group that was banned under Mr Mubarak.
US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, visiting Cairo for the first time since the revolution, said Egyptians who had become active in politics should have the time ‘to develop political parties and to develop organisation and structure’.
But he steered clear of an Egyptian debate about the timetable the military has charted towards legislative elections as soon as September - a timeline criticised as too tight by budding political groups who want to get organised first.
Some opposition groups, which were crushed for decades by Mr Mubarak, say the schedule favours the well-organised Brotherhood and remnants of Mr Mubarak's ruling party.
‘We are racing against time,’ said Shady Ghazali Harb, a member of a coalition of youth groups that mobilised protests against Mr Mubarak.
‘They are pressuring us with the time factor because of the insistence on holding elections so soon.’
