The prospect of convicting former President Hosni Mubarak in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during last winter's revolution has been complicated by the testimony of four high-ranking police officers that supports the toppled leader.

During the trial's third session, which lasted nearly 12 hours Monday, the police officers, including a general and two majors, gave their accounts of the police crackdowns on Jan. 25 and 28, events that are critical to the prosecution's accusations that Mubarak ordered his interior minister, Habib Adli, to shoot protesters.

Although they were called as prosecution witnesses Monday, all four officers -- appearing to recant earlier statements made to prosecutors -- denied that Adli or any of his aides gave direct orders to use live ammunition against protesters.

Tamer Gomaa, a lawyer representing the families of 11 people killed from Jan. 25 to Feb. 11, said he was not surprised.

"All witnesses are still part of the police force, and I wouldn’t have expected them to say anything that would convict their former superiors," he told Babylon & Beyond. "The Jan. 25 revolution was carried out against the former regime and its police forces. Most officers don’t believe that those who were killed during the revolt were martyrs or were even serving their country."

The Egyptian media portrayed the testimony as an embarrassment  for the state.

"The prosecution witnesses turned into defense witnesses," the independent daily Al-Shorouk proclaimed in a front-page headline. The newspaper said the hearing was "a battering for the victims' families".

Gen. Hussein Moussa, who was head of communications at the Interior Ministry’s Central Security division, testified that automatic weapons were provided only to forces protecting the ministry’s headquarters from protesters. Maj. Emad Saied said orders from his superiors stressed "self-control when facing protesters" and treating demonstrators "like officers’ brothers or sons." Capt. Bassem Hassan said no orders were given to shoot protesters with live ammunition.

Another concern for families of those killed during the revolution, as well as activists wanting to see Mubarak and Adli convicted, is continuing disorganization and chaos among the more than 100 civil rights lawyers representing families of the more than 800 people killed during the revolution. Shouting and fistfights in court Monday prompted Judge Ahmed Refaat to abandon the chamber for 45 minutes.

"There are so many [civil rights] lawyers who want to take over the scene without allowing us to work on the case itself," Gomaa said. "In a hearing like today we should have organized ourselves to come up with a set of the best possible questions for the witnesses."

The trial is set to resume Wednesday.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Hosni Mubarak lies on a bed behind bars during his trial's second session Aug.15. Credit: Associated Press

 
Legal experts and citizens alike were concerned as well as bemused by the chaotic and unorganized antics of lawyers representing families of martyrs during former President Hosni Mubarak’s trial on charges that he ordered the shooting of protesters last winter.

The 30 or so lawyers representing families made a spectacle Wednesday, racing each other to address the court’s judge while showing a lack of eloquence and jurisprudence during the nationally televised hearing. They at times resembled a scrum on a rugby field. So much so that many Egyptians believed that Mubarak's veteran defense lawyer, Farid el Deeb, stood out as more polished and erudite.

One lawyer yelled that Mubarak was a serial killer. Another grabbed a microphone and claimed that Mubarak, who had been wheeled into the courtroom in a hospital bed, was not Mubarak at all. The lawyer said Mubarak died in 2004 and that the man on trial was an imposter in an elaborate scheme by outside forces.  

“The main problem is that the hearing was attended by many victims’ lawyers, who don’t have the necessary experience to deal with such case. If this issue isn’t rectified before the second hearing then this will hinder any chances of indicting Mubarak,” said Tarek Awady, a lawyer in the Egyptian Appeals Court, told Babylon & Beyond.

Essam Sultan, a lawyer and deputy head of Al Wasat Party, described the performance of lawyers calling for victims’ civil rights on Wednesday as shameful. Councilor Zakariya Abdul Aziz, former head of Egypt’s judges’ union, said that there had been no coordination among the attorneys.

Awady said that a group of prominent lawyers is attempting to take over the cases of victims' families from some of their inexperienced and grandstanding colleagues. “This is the biggest trial in Egypt’s history, and the whole country will be depressed and lose confidence if we can’t indict Mubarak through lawyers who know how to parse all evidence and prove his guilt,” Awady said. 

Mubarak, whose visit to court was his first public appearance since his ouster Feb. 11, is charged with conspiring with former Interior Minister Habib Adli to kill protesters during the Jan. 25 revolution. He also faces allegations of financial corruption and abuse of power. He pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz disputed Mubarak's right to attend the hearing while lying in bed, saying that Mubarak looked in good enough health to have been able to sit on a wheelchair. Mubarak reportedly has heart problems, but many believed his bed scene was an attempt to gain pity and avoid prison.

Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, who appeared next to him in court, are charged with illegal gains and using their father's power to benefit themselves. Their trial was adjourned until Aug. 15.

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-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Hosni Mubarak speaking from his bed in the defendants' cage in a Cairo courtroom. Credit: Associated Press

A conference hall in east Cairo will serve as the courtroom Wednesday when the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons gets underway, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported Thursday.

“It has been finally decided that the trial for ex-President Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, businessman Hussein Salem, former Interior Minister Habib Adli and six of his aides" will take place in the Public Investment Administration building in Cairo's Nasr City district, Deputy Minister of Justice Mohamed Manie was quoted by MENA as saying.

Concerns over Mubarak’s reputed deteriorating health have been growing in recent weeks and many Egyptians believe the trial may be postponed. The former leader is reported to be refusing food. His lawyer told journalists that Mubarak was suffering from cancer and on the verge of death, claims that have been denied by Health Ministry officials.

Egyptian former President Hosni Mubarak has denied ordering police officers to kill protesters during the 18-day uprising that ended with his ouster Feb.11, according to interrogation transcripts leaked to the media.

Quotes from the questioning of Mubarak by prosecutors in April have appeared in Egyptian newspapers in recent days and offer a prelude to the former leader's defense when his trial on financial corruption and murder charges begins on Aug. 3. They come as protesters are camping out in Cairo's Tahrir Square, demanding that Mubarak and members of his regime be brought to swift justice.    

"These accusations are not true at all. I would never participate in the killing of Egyptian citizens,'' Mubarak reportedly told investigators. ''I gave orders to deal with protesters without violence, peacefully, without the use of weapons, or bullets or even carrying weapons during the protests,'' he added.

 Toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has cancer, according to his lawyer, who disclosed the news less than two months before Mubarak is to stand trial, accused of financial corruption and allowing security forces to kill hundreds of protesters who rallied against his regime in February. 

Mubarak, who has been hospitalized since suffering a heart attack in April, has been in ill health for years. Reports that he may have cancer surfaced in 2010, when the 83-year-old former leader had a growth removed from his intestine during gallbladder surgery.

Mubarak’s lawyer, Farid Deeb, told Reuters of the former president condition on Monday, referring to a medical report filed with the court. Deeb was quoted as telling Agence France-Presse that Mubarak has "stomach cancer and the tumors are growing."

The announcement contradicts comments last week by an Egyptian medical official, who denied that the former leader had a serious illness. “Whatever has recently been said about the deterioration of Mubarak’s health is rumors,” Dr. Adel Adawi, an assistant to the minister of health, told the Arab media.

Activists and opposition leaders have been suspicious of reports on Mubarak’s health, fearing that his condition is being made to look more dire than it is in an effort by his supporters to keep him from trial. Mubarak and his sons, Alaa and Gamal, are expected to be tried in early August for allegedly defrauding the country and allowing government forces to kill more than 840 Egyptians during 18 days of demonstrations.

“Mubarak and his sons are the symbol of all the corruption carried out under his rule,” said Ismael Zakareya, a teacher. “The importance of his trial is not just to punish him, but it will be to set a great example to any ruler or official who will come to power after him. This revolution will lose a large part of its essence if he and his sons are not sentenced.”

Gamal Mubarak, once expected to be his father's successor, and Alaa are in Tora Prison on the outskirts of Cairo. The former president is in custody in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh. His wife, Suzanne, was released from detention after agreeing to turn over about $4 million in assets. She remains under investigation.

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-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

 Photo: Hosni Mubarak. Credit: Reuters

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

An Egyptian newspaper is reporting that former President Hosni Mubarak, held at a hospital in connection with an investigation into corruption and the deaths of anti-government protesters, could be transferred soon to criminal court.

Al Shorouk newspaper reported (link in Arabic), citing unidentified judicial sources, that Mubarak would be transferred within 72 hours to criminal court to face charges that he ordered the killing of demonstrators.

Protesters have been clamoring for Mubarak's transfer, detention and trial. Thousands gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday, hoisting signs that showed Mubarak in convict's stripes and behind bars. Many threatened to return for an even larger "Friday of Anger" this week if Mubarak and his associates were not tried for alleged crimes, and the campaign has been gathering steam on Facebook and other online forums.

Last week, Al Shorouk caused a stir when military prosecutors called an editor and two reporters in for questioning after they reported on an alleged government deal to offer Mubarak amnesty.

 Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was admitted to a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh two days after he and his sons were summoned for questioning by authorities for alleged corruption and abuse of power stemming from his near 30-year rule, state media reported.

“Mubarak entered Sharm El Sheikh International Hospital at around 4 p.m. and is currently in a stable condition,” the hospital’s manager was quoted as saying by state TV. Mubarak, 82, has been ill health for more than a year, but state media indicated his visit to the hospital may have been motivated by his growing legal problems. 

Photos: Mubarak over the years

The former leader and his two sons -- Alaa and Gamal -- were called for questioning by Egypt’s attorney general on Sunday over charges of illegal gains and violence against protesters during the 18-day revolt that started on Jan. 25 and ended with the ex-president’s ouster. The three were expected to be interrogated as early as this week.

Mubarak was “submitted to hospital with the pretext of illness to avoid appearing before interrogation authorities,” the state-run newspaper Al Ahram reported. The newspaper added that Mubarak’s youngest son and head of the former ruling National Democratic Party’s policies committee, Gamal, was on his way to Cairo to be questioned late on Tuesday.

In a recorded address to the nation aired by Al Arabiya on Sunday, Mubarak tried to clear his name of wrongdoing by denying he held bank accounts or properties outside Egypt. News of investigations into the Mubarak family's financial dealings have fascinated and angered a country attempting to move beyond his repressive police state.

Since his overthrow on Feb. 11, when the nation was taken over by a military council, Mubarak has been living in his private palace in Sharm El Sheikh. The attorney general has frozen his financial assets and banned his family members from leaving the country. Concerns over Mubarak's health grew after he underwent a gallbladder surgery and had a growth removed from his intestine at a German hospital one year ago. 

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Complete coverage of unrest in Egypt

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Mubarak at the presidential palace in Cairo in January. Credit: Amel Pain / EPA

Tens of thousands of demonstrators returned to Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday to demand the prosecution of former President Hosni Mubarak and accuse the ruling Supreme Military Council of not acting quickly enough to bring corrupt members of the old regime to justice.

Frustration among millions of Egyptians has risen after a number of former ministers in the Mubarak government were arrested but have yet to be indicted on corruption and other charges. While Mubarak and his family members have had their financial assets frozen and are banned from leaving the country, the ex-president has not been charged with any crimes.

A special panel set up by the current interim government headed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf is expected to question Mubarak’s younger son, Gamal, next week. "We want Mubarak and other corrupt officials put on trial and charged. Why does convicting a thug or a thief take a few days while indicting someone like Mubarak  -- we all witnessed his shameful acts -- takes months and maybe years?” said protester Mohamed Fawzi.

The consistent delays and adjournments of court hearings of previous ministers has increased concerns among protesters that Mubarak and his ex-officials might escape justice. Many Egyptians claim government officials enriched themselves through graft, conflicts of interest, kickbacks and other crimes while more more than 40% of the population lived on $2 a day or less. 

“Now we have a suspicion that Mubarak struck a deal with the military before they toppled him. We fear that the military council asked him to step down and assured him he won’t be put on trial in return,” said another protester, Abdel Azim Mukhtar, a 41-year-old accountant.

Once considered heroes for playing their part in ousting Mubarak, the head of the Military Council Field Marshal, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and other military council members are now facing a crisis of trust with many Egyptians.

“Field Marshal Tantawi, you are out of credit,” read one sign carried by a protester on Friday. Another banner addressed the military by saying: “Military Forces, you have a place in our hearts, don’t lose it.”

According to Mukhtar, despair is growing among all Egyptians because of the unexplainable delay in cracking down on corruption that permeated Mubarak's government. “Those few former ministers are no more than scapegoats, but there are hundreds of former Mubarak aids and allies who remain untouched.”

A group of protesters suggested that now might be the time for the military forces to get back to their role of defending Egypt.

“We don’t want the military to do politics because they’re not good at it. We also don’t want to clash with the military, so it will be better for all of us and for Egypt to have a presidential council ruling the country until the presidential elections,” says Ismael Hosny, a 55-year-old engineer.

The Supreme Military Council announced last week that it will hold of power until a new president is elected in October or November. A new parliament is expected to be elected in September.

--Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Protesters wave Egyptian flags in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday. Credit: Reuters

[Editor's note: Analysts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace are included among contributors to Babylon & Beyond. Carnegie is renowned for its political, economic and social analysis of the Middle East. The views represented are the author's own.]

The amendment to Egypt's constitution recently announced by Chancellor Tareq Bishri's commission -- if adopted by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and approved by a majority of citizens in a general referendum -- will lay the foundation for constraining the near-absolute powers granted to the president by the 1971 constitution.

They are also a positive step toward administering pluralistic legislative and presidential elections before the end of the current transitional phase. Some of the proposed amendments would help rein in presidential power in Egypt by affecting the following constitutional articles:

• Article 77: Shorten presidential terms to four years and limit presidents to a maximum of two consecutive terms.

• Article 148: Constrain the president's powers to announce a state of emergency and require a popular referendum to extend the state of emergency beyond six months.

• Article 179: Void presidential power to suspend citizens' civil liberties and political rights.

The Egyptian attorney general has forbidden former President Hosni Mubarak and his family from leaving the country, the state newspaper Al Ahram reported. The travel ban includes Mubarak, his wife, his two sons and their wives, as well as his grandchildren.

Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud, Egypt's prosecutor-general, has also given orders to freeze the family's financial assets. The move comes after an inquiry into Mubarak's wealth filed by former member of parliament Mustafa Bakri. According to Al Ahram, Bakri submitted at least 40 files stating that Mubarak's wife and sons have 24 accounts in Egyptian banks, in addition to other secret accounts with an estimated sum of more than 200 million Egyptian pounds, or $147 million.

The decision is expected to ease many Egyptians' concerns over the ruling Military Council's willingness to speed up the process of fighting corruption. The former ministers of Interior, Tourism and Housing are all currently detained for interrogations in connection with charges of corruption and misuse of power.

On Friday, thousands of Egyptians took to Tahrir Square, demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, who was chosen by Mubarak to head the new Cabinet a few days before the ex-president was forced to step down. Egypt's Foreign Ministry has already asked foreign countries to freeze Mubarak family assets and foreign bank accounts.

Since resigning on Feb.11, Mubarak is believed to have been staying at a private residence in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his family. Credit: Associated Press

 
Egyptians are smiling again. Theirs is a deep pride in the revolution, along with a joyous freedom to say whatever bad thing they want about the government. The biggest crowd yet filled Tahrir Square and spilled across bridges and neighborhoods in Cairo on Friday, celebrating victory and mourning 365 martyrs.

The Army tanks are fewer but still anchor the city, big brothers keeping the people safe. The Army Council text messages me daily. It seems it wants everyone to quit protesting and get back to work for the good of the nation. Google executive Wael Ghonim joined in, telling the strikers that now is not the time to ask for $100 instead of $70.   

The police are back, in fresh uniforms and trimmed moustaches, after a brief forced vacation following the Day of Anger. They too have asked for better wages, and forgiveness.

Most disturbing are the rumors, which swirl like dust storms: Thugs are throwing empty baby carriages onto roadways, and then robbing and killing drivers who stop. Impossible, say some prone to dark humor, because drivers here stop for no one. Sexual harassment is up, report some sources, while others say it has stopped. Hosni Mubarak, at his home in Sharm el Sheikh, lies in a coma; a day later, the guards report he is breakfasting on the beach.

Many are curious about the thousands of escaped prison inmates. The word on the street had them responsible for the mayhem and looting that led to vigilante groups forming across the country. It didn’t seem likely though, when a hot shower and home-cooked meal were beckoning after long years in a cell.

Indeed, more than a few political prisoners are back in their home countries. Hamas commander Ayman Nofal returned to central Gaza after serving three years in the Abu Zabaal prison, northeast of Cairo. Nofal, arrested in 2008 for planning terror attacks in Egypt, made his way home through a tunnel in Rafah. And, according to Agence France-Presse, Mohammed Yusuf Mansour -- alias Sami Shehab -- and other members of a Hezbollah cell escaped from an Egyptian prison along with members of the Palestinian group Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and thousands of others during the anti-government protests.

Videos uploaded to YouTube showed men escaping over high prison walls, others being told to leave and still others deciding to stay, so as not to risk capture and further sentencing. Dozens were reported to have died at Abu Zabaal, according to Human Rights Watch.

Masked commandos no longer guard the villas in Maadi, my neighborhood south of Cairo. The chains and locks bought in panic hang limp near open gates. Security guards have removed the trees, ladders and sundry barricades blocking the streets. But campfires still burn through the night, their sweet smoke marking change, freedom, a new Egypt. And, say the gallibayeed guards on my corner, a chance to roast potatoes. They prefer the orange ones.   

-- Clare Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Celebration in Tahrir Square. Credit: Reuters

 [Editor's note: Analysts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace are included among contributors to Babylon & Beyond. Carnegie is renowned for its political, economic and social analysis of the Middle East. The views represented are the author's own.]

Now that President Mubarak has stepped down, Egypt has entered a transitional phase led by the military. Egyptians are looking to establish a democracy and this exceptional moment offers a chance for comprehensive political change that will affect not only Egypt but also the rest of the Arab world.

Egyptians’ first responsibility is to fully participate in this transitional phase. People need to act alongside the military, not against it. Citizens are critical for ensuring a democratic transformation and the emergence of a society based on equal opportunity and social justice. The revolution owed its legitimacy to its popular support and now the popular will must be used in new political, legal, and constitutional contexts.

To do this, Egypt needs a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution that does not give a president limitless powers, as the current constitution does. A parliamentary regime is preferable as it is the best suited type of government for guaranteeing that various forces are represented. Egypt suffered from a frightening advance of executive authority since the revolution in 1952, and a parliamentary system would help ensure that legislative and judicial authorities have the much-needed powers to safeguard from a repeated encroachment.