CAIRO — The spectacle of Hosni Mubarak lying in a cage at his criminal trial will no longer be televised, the Egyptian judge hearing the case ruled Monday.

The ruling ends the trial’s extraordinary immediacy for Egyptians. The broadcast of the trial’s first day, Aug. 3, served as a catharsis for post-revolutionary Egypt and electrified the Arab world with the image of an autocrat brought down by his own people, for the first time, to the standing of an ordinary criminal.

On Monday, the second day of the trial, Judge Ahmed Refaat said without explanation that he was turning the cameras off “to protect the public interest.”

The Mubarak family was evidently pleased. For most of the day in court, Mr. Mubarak’s sons, Gamal and Alaa, who are facing charges of corruption, tried to shield him from the cameras. But they left smirking and waving. Gamal, once his father’s heir apparent, lifted a bound hand to flash a victory sign.