Mubarak trial viewed as symbolic test

Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
appears in court - August 3, 2011

No modern Arab leader has been tried by his own people, but some want to focus on current abuses, not old ones.

When ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appears in a hastily assembled Cairo courtroom on Wednesday - if he appears at all - it will be a moment unlike any the Arab world has seen in its modern history: a leader overthrown by his own people and put on trial in plain view.

Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, the ousted ruler of Tunisia, fled to Saudi Arabia and has been tried and convicted in absentia.

Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq for 24 years, was tried and executed after a foreign invasion led by the United States. Other rulers have been brought down by military coups and summarily killed or sent into exile.

Mubarak's trial will be unprecedented - a televised catharsis for millions of Egyptians who took to the streets in January and February united primarily in their hatred of the regime he oversaw for 30 years.

But on the eve of trial, many wonder whether the ailing, 83-year-old Mubarak will even appear in person, and some say his trial - while necessary and symbolic - matters less than improving the Egyptian economy and defending the civil rights which protesters thought they had earned over 18 days of bloody revolution.

Murder and corruption charges

If Mubarak appears, he will not be alone.

The former president's case also includes his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, and six senior police officers.

Hussein Salem, a businessman in the petroleum and gas industry, has been charged but fled to Spain and is still being held there.

Mubarak faces an array of allegations. The most prominent and emotionally charged are those tied to regime-sponsored violence against protesters that left 850 people dead and thousands injured during the uprising.

Mubarak, Adly and the high-ranking police officers are charged with premeditated and attempted murder in connection with those deaths.

Prosecutors allege that Mubarak either ordered or allowed the killings to occur, while Adly and the others spread chaos and disrupted security by withdrawing most of their security forces from the streets after January 28, the bloodiest day of the uprising.

Mubarak also faces corruption charges related to gas deals and abuse-of-power charges for illegally acquiring land and property for himself, Gamal and Alaa.

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Source: Al Jazeera, August 2, 2011

Egypt puts Mubarak on trial, transfixing Arab world

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was wheeled into a courtroom cage in a hospital bed on Wednesday to face trial for killing protesters -- an image that thrilled those who overthrew him and must have chilled other Arab autocrats facing popular uprisings.

If convicted, Mubarak could face the death penalty.

The 83-year-old former president, looking frail and gaunt, denied the charges, which could carry the death penalty.

Mubarak is the first Arab leader to stand trial in person since popular uprisings swept the Middle East this year.

The prosecutor said Mubarak "had the intention to kill" peaceful protesters during an 18-day revolt that toppled him on February 11 and during the previous decade.

He accused Mubarak of allowing former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli to use live ammunition on protesters, and also charged him with corruption and wasting public funds.

About 850 people were killed during the unrest.

A lawyer acting for families of the dead demanded execution for Adli, who is being tried alongside Mubarak, the ex-president's two sons Alaa and Gamal, and six former officers.

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Source: reuters Africa, August 3, 2011

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