Activists expect dismissal of Mubarak charges
Mubarak faces charges of complicity in the killing of more than 800 protesters during last year’s uprising that toppled his 29-year regime.
The 83-year-old ailing Mubarak was brought by helicopter to the Cairo courthouse from a hospital where he is held in custody. He was taken into the defendants’ cage on a gurney, wearing sunglasses and covered by a blanket.
Another Cairo court on Thursday acquitted five policemen of charges of killing five protesters during the January 25 to February 11 uprising in the capital’s district of el-Sayedah Zeinab. The court said three of the defendants were not at the site of the killings while the other two fired against protesters in self defence.
The ruling angered families of the victims. Activists demanded that the killers be brought to justice and complained that similar cases are languishing in courts in several Egyptian cities.
On trial with Mubarak are his two sons, Gamal, his one-time heir apparent, and Alaa, along with the ousted leader’s former security chief and six top police commanders. The Mubaraks face additional corruption charges in the same case.
The trial began on August 3 but has been bogged down in procedural matters, including a demand by lawyers for the victims that the presiding judge, Ahmed Rifaat, be removed. That request took a separate court about three months to rule on.
The acquittal of the police officers and the time the Mubarak trial is taking have led many activists to brand the proceedings a farce, organised by the generals who took over power when the longtime leader was ousted.
The generals are led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak’s defence minister for the last 20 years he spent in office.
The activists believe the generals remain beholden to the Mubarak regime, and only placed the former president and his two sons under arrest after pressure by protesters.
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