CAIRO: Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak has been sentenced to life imprisonment on Saturday as he was found guilty of complicity in the death of protesters.

Deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak arrived at court on Saturday wearing sunglasses and lying on a hospital stretcher to hear the verdict in the case against him on charges of ordering the killing of protesters last year, state television showed.

Mubarak was earlier flown by helicopter to the police academy where he has been facing trial.

Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal and business associate Hussein Salem, who fled to Spain, are also on trial over an alleged bribe.

And the former president is also accused of selling natural gas to Israel at lower than market prices.

The session took place in a police academy once named after Mubarak on Cairo's outskirts.

Mubarak has been detained in hospital since his arrest last year after the military, which took power after he resigned, appeared to bow to popular protests demanding that he and former regime officials be put on trial.

But the military insists the prosecution's investigations and the charges eventually filed were independent judicial decisions.

However, critics say the investigations were hasty and sloppy, resulting in a trial based on patchwork evidence that may see Mubarak acquitted.

During the trial, Mubarak was wheeled into the lecture hall that serves as a courtroom on a stretcher. He reportedly suffers from a heart condition, but the health ministry has denied his lawyer's claim that he has cancer.

Along with Adly, Mubarak's co-defendants include six former police commanders.

They have all denied that they ordered police to shoot protesters or use deadly force during the uprising, in which demonstrators torched police stations across the country.

The verdict comes just two weeks before a run-off in presidential elections that will pit Mubarak's former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq against the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi in a highly polarising race.

It is the first openly contested presidential election in any of the Arab countries swept by regional protests and uprisings that challenged decades of autocratic rule.

But the revolt also led to a deteriorating economy and increased lawlessness in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, that has helped Shafiq, a symbol of Mubarak's regime, win a surprising amount of support.

AFP/Reuters