EGYPT’S FORMER president Hosni Mubarak is to go on trial for murder and corruption on August 3rd, along with his sons Alaa and Gamal and fugitive businessman Hussein Salem.
Mubarak and his sons are accused of conspiring with former interior minister Habib al-Adly and senior police officials to kill and injure Egyptians during the 18-day uprising that culminated in Mr Mubarak’s resignation on February 11th. If convicted, he and his sons could face the death penalty. At least 846 were killed during mass protests.
The Mubaraks are also accused of aiding Mr Salem to secure ownership of hundreds of thousands of acres of state-owned land in the tourist resort of Sharm al-Sheikh. Mr Mubarak and former oil minister Sameh Fahmi are charged with enabling Mr Salem to profit from the sale of Egyptian natural gas to Israel at low prices.
Egypt’s illicit gains authority has estimated that Mr Mubarak’s local fortune at $145 million, a villa in Sharm el-Shaikh, and a 19th-century palace in Cairo, while the Mubarak family’s foreign holdings are said to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Since Mr Mubarak’s fall, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have taken part in rallies to call for him to be brought to justice, putting pressure on the ruling military council to organise speedy trials for the former president, his sons, ministers and entourage.
But the military has been reluctant to put Mr Mubarak, their for- mer commander in chief and benefactor, in the dock.
He has been detained in a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh since April due to ill health and depression and his doctors argue he cannot be moved to prison near Cairo.
Analysts suggest that the court may have to convene in the luxury wing of the hospital. If this happens, Egyptians demanding that he be held accountable for his actions could stage more demonstrations unless the trial is public and televised.
Many are dissatisfied with the trials behind closed doors of several members of the Mubarak administration and the failure of the prosecution to publish charges against these figures.
If the trial goes ahead, Mr Mubarak will be the first modern Arab leader to be hauled before a court by his own people. Although Iraq’s leader Saddam Hussein was tried before an Iraqi bench, the court was constituted by US occupation authorities.
