The retrial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on charges of complicity in the killing of demonstrators in the uprising that ousted him will start on May 11, a Cairo appeals court said on Wednesday.

Khaled Elfiqi / EPA file

A file photo dated April 13, 2013 shows former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak behind the bars of a cage inside the court room during his trial at the Police Academy in Cairo, Egypt.

The former president was also ordered to be transferred back to prison from a military hospital on Wednesday on the recommendation of a medical team after he appeared fitter at his aborted retrial on Saturday.

A first attempt to hold the retrial collapsed on Saturday when the presiding judge withdrew from the case and referred it to another court. Mustafa Hassan Abdullah had been widely criticized for acquitting security men accused of attacking protesters in an incident in which crowds were charged by men riding camels.

Many Egyptians were angered when the 84-year-old Mubarak, who had been seriously ill last year, appeared in good health, smiling and waving to the public in court last Saturday, prompting calls for him to be put back in jail.

The prosecutor general's office said it had decided Mubarak would be returned to Torah prison on the outskirts of Cairo. It did not say when he would be moved.

Mubarak, 84, who ruled Egypt for almost 30 years before being toppled by the 18-day popular uprising in 2011, was convicted last June along with former Interior Minister Habib el-Adli of failing to prevent the killings of more than 800 demonstrators, rather than actually ordering them.

Mubarak and Adli were sentenced to life imprisonment but the country's highest appeals court ordered a retrial in January after accepting appeals from both the defense and prosecution.

This time, the presiding judge will be Mahmoud Kamel El-Rashidi, a low-profile jurist.

The same court will retry Mubarak's two sons, Alaa and Gamal on separate charges of financial corruption at the same time, state news agency MENA reported. Six other top Mubarak aides will also be retried with the former ruler, MENA said.

On Monday, a judge ordered Mubarak's release on bail on the charges of complicity in the killing of protesters but he has remained in custody in a military hospital on separate charges of alleged corruption.

The convoluted legal process has highlighted the difficulty of transitional justice in a country where many of the judges and security chiefs were appointed during the Mubarak era.

Related:

Some Egyptians warm to jailed former president Mubarak ahead of retrial

Egyptian Presidency via AFP - Getty Images

A handout picture released by the Egyptian presidency shows Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi, right, meeting Monday with newly-appointed Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the presidential palace in Cairo.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi may be owed an apology.

Many observers had him pegged as the rather boring, mild-mannered sort who would not say "boo" to a goose, never mind take on the entrenched interests of Egypt's powerful military. But signs have emerged that suggest he cannot be so easily pigeonholed.

To be fair, Morsi hid his true character well.

A former leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, he cut an uncharismatic figure on the election trail and won by just a whisker over the army’s favored candidate.

Then his first cabinet, unveiled at the beginning of August, held few clues to the excitement ahead. The choices were unambitious, most observers agreed.

The cabinet even included Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, personification of the old regime.

It was Tantawi who ruled Egypt after his friend Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February 2011 after nearly three decades in power. Tantawi himself had served as minister of defense for 20 years.

But now Tantawi and the chief-of-staff, Gen. Sami Annan, have been shown the door.

Slideshow: Egypt's revolution and the fall of Mubarak

Ahmed Youssef / EPA

Eighteen days of popular protest culminated in the downfall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011.

Launch slideshow

Political pugilist?
It looks like a stunning blow to the old guard -- a move that Morsi followed by abolishing the generals' June decree that sought to curb the powers of the president’s office.

Morsi appears to be more of a fighter than anyone thought.

The armed forces had supplied Egypt's presidents for six decades, beginning with the 1952 officers' coup led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Muslim Brotherhood's political activities were tightly limited for most of those decades.

"Morsi settles the struggle for power," Reuters quoted a headline in the state-owned Al-Akhbar daily.

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"Morsi ends the political role for the armed forces," the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm wrote. Another, Tahrir, called it the "president's revolution against the military," according to Reuters.

As of Monday, the military had shown no sign of challenging Morsi’s move, the official state-run news agency reported.

But the question is: Why the sudden change?

For an answer, look to the Sinai Peninsula and the attacks by Islamist militants that took the lives of 16 Egyptian border guards before making a futile attempt to storm into Israel.

The murder of so many Egyptian soldiers stoked an angry public backlash, and an emboldened Morsi fired his head of military intelligence, Mourad Mowafi, and other senior security officials.

Blow against 'the deep state'
Still, it is a dramatic leap to then fire Tantawi, by far the heaviest blow struck in Egypt's post-Tahrir Square struggle for power that pits the Muslim Brotherhood against what Egyptians call "the deep state" -- the secretive structure of security and military agencies said still to run the country.

Complete international coverage on NBCNews.com

Rarely, though, are things clear cut. 

Tantawi's old job is going to the head of military intelligence – Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, one of the generals who defended the use of highly controversial "virginity tests" against female democracy campaigners. And, like the new chief of staff, he is a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the much-reviled group that ran the country after the fall of Mubarak.

So it is not yet clear whether the president has really declared war on the military. But it is clear that he will not be underestimated again.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Prominent Christian Egyptians snubbed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday because they feel the U.S. administration favors Islamist parties over secular and liberal forces in society at the expense of Egypt's 8 million Christians.

The critical theme was repeated by others Sunday in Cairo and Alexandria despite Clinton denying U.S. interference in Egyptian elections.

The politicians, businessmen and clerics who snubbed Clinton were supposed to take part in meetings between Clinton and influential members of civil society.

Coptic Christian businessman and politician Naguib Sawiris and three other Coptic politicians said in a statement they were objecting to Clinton's policies in solidarity with the mainstream Egyptian.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton poses with Egypt's Christian leaders for a picture Sunday after their meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

They also said that since the revolution, the U.S. administration and Clinton have paid many visits in support of Islamic political currents in society while ignoring other civil movements.

The four prominent Copts consider the meeting with the Islamist parties a form of external pressure to push the Islamists to power and ignore other civil movements. They blamed the U.S. for even showing a preference for an Islamist presidential candidate.

Egypt, a nation of nearly 84 million, is 90 percent Muslim, 9 percent Coptic and 1 percent other Christian denominations.

Two church leaders also turned their back on Clinton.

Coptic Bishop Morcos and Evangelical church leader Safwat al Bayadi refused to meet with Clinton because of what they characterized as interference in Egyptian internal affairs and U.S. support for Islamists while ignoring the majority of Egyptians.

A few hundred protesters chanted the same message in front of the Garden City Four Seasons hotel where Clinton overnighted.

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Clinton sought to dispel the idea.

"She wanted, in very, very clear terms, particularly with the Christian group this morning, to dispel that notion and to make clear that only Egyptians can choose their leaders, that we have not supported any candidate, any party, and we will not," a senior U.S. official told reporters on Sunday.

Rights for all
At a Sunday meeting of prominent women, Clinton emphasized rights for all Egyptians, not their choices.

"I came to Cairo, in part, to send a very clear message that the United States supports the rights, the universal rights of all people," she said. "We support democracy. But democracy has to be more than just elections. It has to mean that the majority will be protecting the rights of the minority."

The United States will "look to any elected government to support inclusivity, to make sure that the talents of every Egyptian can be put to work in building a new future for this ancient and incredibly important country," Clinton told a group of prominent women.

Alexandria protesters chant 'Monica'
Later in Alexandria, Clinton presided over a ceremony to reopen the U.S. consulate in Alexandria, which was closed in 1993 to save money.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

Protesters gather on an Alexendria, Egypt, street Sunday as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attends a flag-raising ceremony for the reopening of the U.S. consulate in the mediterranean port city.

The ceremony was moved inside as protesters grew vocal outside the consulate.

In her speech, Clinton said, "I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which, of course, we cannot."

Protesters threw tomatoes, shoes and a water bottle as members of the press accompanying Clinton walked to their vans.

A tomato hit an Egyptian official in the face.

The protesters also chanted "Monica, Monica, Monica," a reference to Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern who was the focus of a sex scandal with her husband, then-President Bill Clinton.

This article includes reporting by Reuters.

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AFP - Getty Images

The Egyptian parliament meets in Cairo on Tuesday, after being summoned by new President Mohamed Mursi in an open challenge to the generals who dissolved it last month.

CAIRO – Egypt's Islamist-dominated parliament opened a new front in the country's leadership showdown on Tuesday by meeting in defiance of orders that disbanded the chamber last month. The move brought new President Mohammed Morsi in direct conflict with both the powerful military and the highest court. 

The legislators – except for some liberal members of parliament who boycotted the session they considered unconstitutional – passed a decision to refer a previous move declaring 30 percent of parliament illegitimate to a court of appeals.

The session lasted just five minutes, suggesting that lawmakers sought to take more of a symbolic stand, rather than a full-scale backlash, against rulings that invalidated the chamber over apparent irregularities in Egypt's first elections since the fall of Hosni Mubarak 17 months ago. 

Symbolic or not, something very real is at the heart of the parliamentary tussle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military: control of the body tasked with writing Egypt's new constitution. 

The so-called constituent assembly will determine the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government, and the degree to which Islamic law is applied. 

Mohammed Asad / AP

Egyptian lawmakers greet each other at a brief session of Parliament, the first since the country's high court ruled the chamber unconstitutional, in Cairo, Egypt on Tuesday.

In showdown with new president, Egypt's top court says ruling on parliament final

Constituent assemblies have a troubled history in Egypt. The first, which was two-thirds hard-line Islamist, was dissolved when its Christian, secularists, moderate Islamists, liberals and female members withdrew, saying that the body did not represent them.

The second constituent assembly, appointed just three weeks ago, has also been called biased, despite being half Islamist and half secular. But it has continued to meet, albeit fitfully.  

Because the parliament has been dissolved, the validity of the current constituent assembly is also in question and its status will be determined in court on September 4. Morsi has asked parliament to stay on until 60 days after a new constitution is drafted and put to a public referendum, at which time new parliamentary elections would be held. 

Both sides backed down from the brink Tuesday – the military removed most of the security from the parliament building and allowed members of the dissolved legislature to enter the building.

A crowd of around 200 people demonstrated their support for the newly elected president and the Brotherhood on a street in Cairo on Tuesday evening by chanting: "The people and the parliament are one hand" and "only the president has legitimacy."

As Morsi takes symbolic oath, many fear the 'Islamization of Egyptian society

Messages of support for Morsi's move also populated the Muslim Brotherhood's website.

"I support President Mursi's decision to return legislative power to the parliament rather than the military council," renowned writer Alaa al Aswany wrote.  "It is the first step on the right path."

Hamdi Kandil, journalist and commentator asked: "Do the people who reject the reconvening of the parliament want the military council to assume legislative power?"

But the political brinkmanship angered others. 

"It's not right to go against the judiciary. Maybe [Morsi] will decide to release [former President] Mubarak," taxi driver Haitham Mahmoud told NBC News. "Maybe he will decide to ban judges from supervising the polling stations in the next elections. The first three days of his presidency were all Morsi. After that it was all Mohamed Badie [the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood]."

Some feel that Morsi is working for Muslim Brotherhood – which counts for the support of around 5 million out of more than 80 million Egyptians – not the well-being of all his countrymen.

"I don’t like this. He doesn’t respect the law," Samia Hallen, a 45-year-old  business administration teacher, told NBC News. "I am not sure if it is his decision or that of the Muslim Brotherhood. People have a right to be angry with his decision."

Hallen pledged a backlash if Morsi continued on the same confrontational path.

"We will give him 100 days. If we don’t like his performance, we will go back to the street."

NBC News Ayman Mohyeldin, Joanna de Boer and Taha Belal contributed to this report. 

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Updated at 4:05 p.m. ET: CAIRO -  Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood-backed candidate, was declared Egypt’s first Islamist president on Sunday with 51.7 percent of last weekend's run-off vote, defeating Ahmed Shafiq, who had been tapped as prime minister by former President Hosni Mubarak.

In an address to Egyptians late Sunday night, Morsi reiterated his platform of unifying all Egyptians. Of those who died while protesting more than a year ago, he said, "Their blood will not go in vain."

Morsi becomes Egypt’s fifth president, following Mubarak, who was president for nearly 30 years before mass protests across the country forced him to resign in February 2011.

The announcement by the state election committee Sunday touched off a jubilant celebration in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters had gathered in 97-degree heat. The crowd waved national flags and chanted "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is great!"

Morsi will be sworn in on July 1, according to the election timetable.

His victory followed speculation about backroom deals and suspected interference by the ruling military council in determining the outcome in favor of Shafiq, Mubarak’s prime minister.

In his speech Sunday night, Morsi said that contrary to popular belief, he was grateful to the police, whom he called his "brothers and children." He said he would rely on them to maintain "security from the inside."

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

Supporters of Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, protest against Egypt's military rulers in Tahrir Square on Saturday.

Morsi, who received an engineering degree from the University of Southern California in the early 1980s according to media reports, was a last-minute candidate, chosen to represent the Brotherhood after their preferred choice was disqualified.

On the campaign trail, he promised to institute Islamic law. One of his supporters, cleric Safwat el-Hegazy, issued a direct challenge to Israel, calling for a Muslim super-state across the Middle East with Jerusalem as its capital.

Morsi, 60, distanced himself from the cleric’s comments, but they trailed him on the campaign despite his assertion that he will respect international treaties, including the 1979 peace accord, on which much U.S. aid depends. He said he will not, however, meet with Israeli officials, according to the BBC.

He has also pledged to form an inclusive government to appeal to the many Egyptians, including a large Christian minority worried about potential religious rule. He has repeated that he would maintain his independence from the Brotherhood and not turn Egypt into a theocracy.

Morsi won the first round ballot in May with less than a quarter of the vote.

There were some isolated scuffles in parts of Cairo between rival groups on Sunday. Several hundred Shafiq supporters in the middle-class suburb of Nasr City chanted "Save Egypt! The Brotherhood will destroy it!'' while soldiers tried to keep traffic moving.

The military council will retain control of the biggest army in the Middle East, whose closest ally is the United States. 

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads the military council that has ruled Egypt for more than 16 months, congratulated the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate after his presidential election win was confirmed, state television reported. The report, made in a brief headline, did not give further details.

Morsi "will likely face foot-dragging and perhaps outright attempts to undermine his initiatives from key institutions," Elijah Zarwan, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said in Cairo. "Faced with such resistance, frustration may tempt him fall into the trap of attempting to throw his new weight around. This would be a mistake. His challenge is to lead a bitterly divided, fearful, and angry population toward a peaceful democratic outcome, without becoming a reviled scapegoat for continued military rule."

Egypt's ruling armed forces were on alert on Sunday as fears of violence mounted in the final hours before the state election committee named the winner.

Sunday's result -- 500 days after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak -- is historic for the Middle East, but will not end power struggles between the army, Islamists and others over Egypt's future.

The generals, who oversaw Mubarak's departure, have repeatedly said, both to Egyptians and to their close U.S. ally, that they will return to barracks and hand over to civilian rule. But they present themselves as guardians of Egypt's security and long-term interests and moved to block the Islamists from taking more than a share of power.

The military has held power in Egypt for nearly 60 years since the revolution to overthrow a dynasty.

Iran's Foreign Ministry congratulated Egyptians on Sunday for Morsi's victory, saying Egypt was in the final stages of an "Islamic Awakening."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying he "appreciates the democratic process in Egypt and respects its outcome."

"Israel expects continue cooperation with the Egyptian administration on the basis of the peace accord between the two countries, which is in the interest of the two peoples and contributes to regional stability,'' the statement said.

The son of a peasant farmer, Morsi has spoken of a simple childhood in a village in the Nile Delta province of Sharqia, recalling how his mother taught him prayer and the Koran. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1982 after studying at Cairo University. 

Following his studies in the United States, he returned to Egypt in 1985. Two of his five children hold U.S. citizenship. 

Charlene Gubash, NBC News producer in Cairo, msnbc.com's Isolde Raftery, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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CAIRO -- Thousands of flag-waving protesters filled Cairo's Tahrir Square for Friday prayers as Egypt's presidential candidates, an Islamist and former general, accused each other of trying to steal an election whose result is still not known five days on.

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi says he has already won, called on supporters to gather at the birthplace of last year's Arab Spring revolt until the ruling military council rescinds orders that curb the new president's powers and dissolved the new, Islamist-led parliament.

The delay in announcing the results of two days of voting which ended on Sunday also raised fears that the army may try to swing the election to Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander whom Mubarak made prime minister just before his fall.

A result is not expected until Saturday or Sunday, giving the country a tense weekend, although the vast majority, many not greatly enamored of either candidate in the run-off, were staying at home and passing Friday's Muslim weekend as normal.

'Classic counter revolution'
For many -- both in the organized mass Islamist movements and in the more fragmented secular, liberal opposition -- a Shafiq victory, coupled with the military council taking powers over legislation and drafting a constitution, would mean that the six decades of army rule they thought were over, will in fact go on.

"This is a classic counter revolution that will only be countered by the might of protesters," said Safwat Ismail, 43, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who came from the Nile Delta. "I am staying in the square until the military steps down."

Marwan Naamani / AFP - Getty Images

Thousands of supporters of Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi pack Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square on Friday.

Mahmoud Mohammed, a bearded, 31-year-old marine engineer from Alexandria among a group from the more fundamentalist Salafist movement camping on the square, insisted they were not looking for a battle, but wanted to see democracy installed.

"The people elected a parliament and they put it in the rubbish bin. We need the army to hand over," he said, adding: "No one came here for a fight. We need democracy."

Prayer
Around him, the broad traffic interchange by the Nile in central Cairo was filled with makeshift tents offering shade from the midday sun, hawkers offering an array of goods from tea to "I Love Tahrir Square" T-shirts and a mostly devout crowd of men, many bussed in from the provinces, who knelt in prayer.

Other parts of the crowd chanted and waved Egyptian flags.

The dissolution of parliament ordered by judges appointed under Mubarak and enforced by the army; the military decree on new constitutional arrangements; and the delay in announcing the president by an electoral commission appointed under the old regime have sapped confidence in a process Egyptians hoped would lead to real reform.

Shafiq, who was Mubarak's last premier when the army forced out the dictator to appease the Tahrir protesters, challenged Morsi's self-proclaimed victory and said on Friday he was sure he had won, despite Islamist pressure on officials.

He stopped short of emulating Morsi, who claimed outright victory on the basis of the Brotherhood's own tally of results from local polling stations, but said was "confident."

At a televised address to whooping and cheering supporters, Shafiq said: "These protests in the squares, the campaigns of terror and the media manipulation are all attempts to force the election committee to announce a particular result."

Slideshow: Hosni Mubarak

Philippe Bouchon / AFP - Getty Images

The President of Egypt for nearly 30 years, Mubarak was an advocate for peace in the Middle East and a major U.S. ally, but Egyptians eventually grew tired of his corrupt regime and he was ousted in a popular revolt in February 2011.

Launch slideshow

In a country where virtually no one can remember an election that was not rigged before last year, trust is low, not least among Brotherhood officials, many of whom, like Morsi, were jailed under Mubarak for their political activities.

The same electoral commission that handed an improbable 90 percent of a November 2010 parliamentary vote to Mubarak's supporters - a result which fueled the protests that brought him down a few weeks later - sits in judgment on the new presidency.

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said on Thursday the delay "generates concern, no doubt", expressing fear that the authorities were getting ready to announce Shafik the winner. "The doubt extends to this possibility."

Egyptian media have described a nation on edge.

Al-Ahram, the main establishment newspaper, noted there was intense pressure from within Egypt - and from the army's key sponsor, the United States - to sort out the situation quickly to ensure pledges of democracy were met.

It noted that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had called for an "inclusive democratic process" and said the army must not "dominate or subvert the constitutional authority."

"The interest of the nation goes before narrow interests," said reformist politician Mohamed ElBaradei, a former U.N. diplomat and Nobel peace laureate on Twitter. "What is required immediately is a mediation committee to find a political and legal exit from the crisis. Egypt is on the verge of explosion."

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Egypt's elections authorities say they will delay announcing who won Egypt's presidential election but have not given a new date.

The Supreme Elections Commission said in a statement Wednesday that results won't be announced on Thursday as scheduled because the commission is looking into complaints presented by rival candidates.

A panel of judges must examine some 400 complaints over voting submitted by both Ahmed Shafiq, ousted leader Hosni Mubarak's prime minister, and the campaign of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi.

"We cannot announce when exactly the timing of the announcement of the election results will be because now we are at the stage of listening to the representatives," Committee Secretary-General Hatem Bagato told Reuters.

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak reportedly clinging to life in military hospital

"The committee will meet afterwards to decide on whether to accept the appeals or not. After that there will be a time set to announce the final result," Bagato added, speaking by phone.

He issued an official statement later in the day with more detail.

"The committee has decided to continue to examine the appeals, which involves looking at records and logs related to the electoral process, and this will necessitate more time before announcing the final results," the statement said.

Any lengthy delay in disclosing the results risks prolonging uncertainty and stoking tension at a time when it is unclear how big a role the military will continue to play in leading the country. No official figures have been announced, but candidates had representatives at polling stations and were able to make their own tallies.

"We must give both sides all the time they need to ensure that the process is fair and prevent any claims later on that not enough time was given to both sides," Bagato explained.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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