Events in Egypt this week have led to intensified accusations that the authorities are going easy on figures from the regime of deposed former president Hosni Mubarak while cracking down on dissidents.
Last weekend an Egyptian court dropped a case against Mubarak over the killing of 846 protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule.
This was followed on Tuesday by the imposition of death sentences on 188 Muslim Brotherhood supporters for the killings of 13 at a police station in the town of Kardasa in August 2013.
Concerns about double standards increased after it was reported that Mubarak may be set free shortly as he has completed a three-year sentence handed down in 2011 for embezzlement of funds allocated for the upkeep of presidential palaces.
Ahram Online analyst Dina Samak that if this happens Mubarak may agree to remain for some "days or weeks" in a military hospital where he has been under house arrest since February to allow the society to "politically absorb the fury" many feel about his escape from justice.
Misappropriated funds
The authorities have tried to mollify angry Egyptians in two ways. The government has pledged to recover from foreign banks and investments millions of dollars misappropriated by the Mubaraks, and prosecutor general
Hisham Barakat
has issued an order to file appeals in the cases of protester deaths and corruption arising from the sale of discounted natural gas to Israel.
These appeals will be submitted to the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest court, which could, says Samak, “revise the reasoning of the verdict or issue another verdict” in either one or both cases. This could buy time for the authorities, which are worried about a backlash over the soft treatment Mubarak received in contrast to the harsh sentences handed down to fundamentalists and secular dissidents who have called, separately, for protracted protests, beginning tomorrow.
Samak was more worried about the dismissal of the case against Mubarak’s interior minister Habib El-Adly and his six aides, accused of carrying out the 2011 crackdown on protesters. “I’m not happy with this message. This means the security forces do not know the limitations” of the use of force.
She says the government is “too scared to initiate political reforms” while its “war against the Islamists” deprives the secular opposition of a political platform.
According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the Mubarak verdict “entrenches impunity for gross human rights violations committed by security forces, yet again absolved of responsibility for killing, injuring and torturing protesters”. EIPR researcher Hoda Nasrallah writes that the verdict solidifies “the security institution’s impunity and reflects the current political atmosphere”.
Revolutionary Front founder and executive committee member Rami Shaath says young people who made the 2011 uprising want to protest but are afraid to take to the streets. "There is no room for expressing opinions, for rallying people, for civil society organisations, movements and students. There is no room for fair elections."
The symbols of the Mubarak regime – powerful businessmen – are back. The authorities face a weakened Islamist movement and “much weakened revolutionary forces,” he says.
Election
He says the government is in a dilemma over when to hold the parliamentary election, already well beyond the deadline set by the roadmap adopted after the July 2013 ousting of president
Mohammed Morsi
, a senior figure in the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The government is under strong pressure to hold this election before an investment conference scheduled for March-April next year.
No date has been set for the election, the controversial election law is under review, a number of parties could boycott and president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has not yet “forged a political front to support him,” says Shaath.