The deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was facing the possibility of death by hanging as the final session in one of the most sensational trials in recent history drew to a close.
Given a last opportunity to address the court in Cairo, where for much of the past six months he has lain on a hospital bed in a cage listening to the evidence against him, Mubarak refused, telling the judge he had no comments to make.
"What the lawyer said is enough," said the 83-year-old, whose reign began in a bloodbath after he saw his predecessor, Anwar Sadat, gunned down before his eyes during a military parade in Cairo back in 1981.
The chief prosecutor made it clear this week that if convicted, Mubarak could suffer a similarly undignified denouement, and the hangman's noose. Mustafa Suleiman told the court that the former President, whose two sons are being tried alongside him on corruption charges, authorised the use of live ammunition against protesters.
"This is not a case about the killing of one or 10 or 20 civilians, but a case of an entire nation," said Suleiman.