Former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak is currently being tried in Cairo, presenting a remarkable televised spectacle.  The Washington Post reports on the opening of the trial and Mubarak’s appearance in court.

Many previous revolutionary movements have put their deposed leaders on trial, including Charles I of England, Louis XVI of France, and Nicolae Ceausescu.  An article in the Guardian today examined these precedents for Mubarak’s trial.

PRI’s The World offered a brief history of political trials today, as did the New Yorker online. These stories also examined parallels with the trial of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Readers interested in exploring historical precedents for trials of deposed heads of state can start with David P. Jordan’s The King’s Trial: Louis XVI vs. the French Revolution, 25th anniversary edition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004).