Mubarak's trial started in August [JURIST report] and has been making slow progress. The trial was resumed last week by the Egyptian court after a two-month adjournment [JURIST reports] which allowed the court time to rule on a motion made by lawyers representing the victims' families to have the three-judge panel in the case removed. The victims' families argued that were not given enough time to question the Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi [GlobalSecurity profile], head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) [NYT backgrounder], who testified against Mubarak [JURIST report] in a closed session in September, but left early and refused to be cross-examined by counsel of the victims. In December the court also rejected the prosecution's motion [JURIST report] for a new judge and fined the prosecution for making such request. The motion was based on the allegation that Judge Refaat was showing bias in favor of Mubarak [AFP report].