In an unprecedented trial of a Middle East leader, Hosni Mubarak was wheeled into the steel defendants’ cage of a makeshift courtroom Wednesday.

Accompanied by his sons, Gamal and Alaa, his former interior minister and six interior ministry aides, the 83-year old former president faces charges of conspiring to kill unarmed protesters during the popular uprising earlier this year. He also faces charges of corruption, benefiting from the sale of natural gas to Israel.

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Raw Video: Mubarak arrives in court

The conspiracy to murder charge carries a possible death penalty.

Looking wan, as he lay in a hospital bed inside the large steel cage, Mr. Mubarak was awake and alert. His two sons, stood at his bedside, between their father and the seven other defendants, as the court dealt with procedural matters largely related to ex-interior minister Habib Ibrahim al-Adly, a Mubarak appointee.

It was a touching family scene as the elderly Mr. Mubarak probably has not dealt with such a humiliation in all his three decades in power. Not just is he being tried for alleged crimes (in the police academy that bore his name until Tuesday) but he is made to wait, lying down, while lawyers shout and the head judge rules on relatively minor matters.

“I feel bad for him” said a white-uniformed police officer in his 40s, watching the historic scene in a downtown Cairo café.

“I think the judge will take a position based on what the public wants,” he said. “The people want him to be convicted.”

“I want him to be convicted too, but in a fair trial.”