EGYPT/FILE: Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak goes on trial for conspiring to kill protesters who drove him from office on February 11 after 30 years at the helm

Record ID: 722349

  • Title: EGYPT/FILE: Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak goes on trial for conspiring to kill protesters who drove him from office on February 11 after 30 years at the helm
  • Date: 3rd August 2011
  • Summary: CAIRO, EGYPT (FILE) (REUTERS) TOP VIEW OF PROTESTERS IN TAHRIR SQUARE DURING REVOLUTION VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CHANTING
  • Embargoed: 18th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5M8X4Q288ERXWPZDV3CSR1YHB
  • Story Text: Egypt's fallen leader, Hosni Mubarak, goes on trial Wednesday (August 3) over his role in killing protesters, in a stark message to Arab rulers elsewhere that they too may one day be held to account.
    The trial will have a wide impact in the region where leaders in Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and Libya are struggling to placate pro-democracy protesters who have taken to the streets demanding reform.
    Mubarak will go on trial together with his two sons, Gamal and Ala, as well as Egypt's former Interior Minister, Habib al-Adly.
    The message may have already reached Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, who have shown no sign of quitting. Nor have they offered concessions akin to those Mubarak offered in vain in his final days in office when he named a vice president and pledged not to seek another term.
    The protests which unseated Mubarak from office last February were the largest during Mubarak's 30 year rule and were sparked by an uprising in nearby Tunisia which ousted longtime Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
    On Jan. 25, protesters took to the streets. Cairo and the Egytian capital and other cities in Egypt soon became battle zones between demonstrators and the police who used gunfire, rubber bullets, water cannon and batons. Bt the end of the uprising nearly 900 demonstrators had been killed by the security forces.
    Anger over the slow pace of reform has led to ongoing protests in Tahrir square, where a three week sit in by demonstrators demanding faster changes and swifter trials of Mubarak and his aides was dispersed by the army and police on August 1st.
    But as millions of Egyptians count down the hours to their ousted president's much anticipated trial, some believe that it might be difficult for some people to see their president behind bars.
    "The Egyptian people look at the trial as justice served for the blood of the martyrs that was shed during the revolution. But there are also a large number of Egyptians who do not want to see their president behind bars. The people are divided, some are for the trial tomorrow, and I can't give you a percentage, but there are others who are against it," said Ali Abdel Sater Ali , an engineer from Cairo.
    Tahrir Square is now largely vacant of protesters and occupied by riot police and army soldiers, but many Egyptians passing through the square said they are eager to see Mubarak in court and in the cage where defendants in Egyptian criminal trials stand.
    One such cage has been erected in the Police Academy in Cairo where the trial will take place, and which bared Mubarak's name.
    Mubarak's name has since been removed.
    If convicted, Mubarak could face the death penalty - a prospect that, for people like Waleed Farag Abdel Salam, is tantamout to justice delivered.
    "Accountability and the death penalty. Hosni Mubarak must be executed in the square for everyone to see, in front of the entire world. We've had enough with all the years of oppression that they imposed on us. Hosni Mubarak has to be tried along with all symbols of corruption. The revolution has not fallen, the revolution will succeed whether the Ministry of the Interior or the military like it or not. We will not quiet down, we will remain in the square and the revolution will succeed, against your will Hosni, the revolution will prevail," he said.
    Analysts say that Mubarak's trial may help quell criticism of the generals now running Egypt, and who some protesters suspect of protecting their former commander.
    A source close to Mubarak said last week that his lawyer would tell the judge that his client was too ill to attend. But the health minister said on Tuesday (July 2) he could be moved.
    Mubarak is standing trial alongside his two sons, Gamal, a former banker once seen as being groomed for top office, and Alaa, who had business interests.
    Also on trial will be former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli and six of his deputies.
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