Mohammed El-Gendi, an attorney for Habib El-Adly, said ElBaradei could testify that security forces from the Interior Ministry protected him and ensured he arrived home safely during the most violent day of the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

ElBaradei, an outspoken critic of the Mubarak regime as well as Egypt’s current military rulers, could not be immediately reached for comment.

El-Adly is charged along with Mubarak and four police commanders of complicity in the killing of protesters during the 18-day revolt last January and February. They could face the death penalty if convicted. Mubarak and his two sons are facing separate charges of corruption in the same case.

El-Gendi, who has five days to present his arguments, was addressing the court on the one-year anniversary of Egypt’s “Day of Rage,” in which hundreds of protesters were killed and wounded in clashes with police.

Several hundred protesters prayed on Cairo’s Qasr Al-Nil bridge Saturday, which spans the Nile River, for those killed a year ago. The bridge was the scene of some of the most violent confrontations with security forces as protesters pushed their way to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak revolt.

Police used live ammunition, fired water cannons and rammed people with armored police vehicles on the bridge a year ago before the security forces, which were run by El-Adly, collapsed and disappeared from the streets.

At the trial Saturday, lawyers for the families of those killed in the uprising requested that Mubarak be transferred to the hospital at Tora prison, where Mubarak’s two sons and some former regime officials are being held. The court said it will study the request.

The court has rejected this request in the past, saying the hospital at Tora prison is not secure enough.

Many Egyptians are angry that Mubarak is ferried to court by helicopter from a presidential suite in an elite military hospital and that his sons and co-defendants swagger in wearing designer track suits and no handcuffs.

El-Gendi compared Mubarak to former US President George W. Bush, saying that the US leader was responsible for wars that led to the deaths of thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan and was never tried in court.

“Mubarak is being tried even though he never said he ordered the shootings,” El-Gendi said.

Earlier this week, El-Gendi claimed the US and Israel plotted the killings of protesters and accused security guards at the American University in Cairo of opening fire on the demonstrations. The university, which immediately issued a denial, has a building that borders Tahrir Square.

Only one policeman has been convicted in more than a dozen court cases over the death of at least 846 people killed in the government crackdown on protesters. He was tried in absentia, and upon his return to Egypt recently, he was granted a retrial.

El-Adly’s defense team has until Wednesday to present its arguments to the court. Mubarak’s lawyer wrapped up his defense earlier, while other defendants have until Feb. 16. Verdicts are not expected soon.