Egypt’s fallen dictator Mubarak back in the dock

CAIRO: The murder and corruption trial of Egypt’s fallen dictator Hosni Mubarak resumes on Monday in what lawyers say will be a lengthy process that he may successfully appeal.

Mubarak, 83, is accused of involvement in the killings of anti-regime activists during a January and February revolt that ended his three decades in power.

He also faces corruption charges with his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, and shares the murder charges with his former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six former police commanders, who are being tried by the same judge in separate hearings.

Mubarak is being held in a military hospital on the outskirts of Cairo.

In the first session on August 3, Mubarak was wheeled in on a stretcher after being flown by military plane from a hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he was receiving treatment for a heart condition.

His appearance in court, penned in a black metal cage, came as a shock to Egyptians who watched the proceedings on live television. Few believed he would ever be seen in court.

But as the first hearing progressed, the difficult task facing judge Ahmed Refaat became clear, as dozens of lawyers representing victims’ families jostled to make their demands of the court.

Mubarak’s lawyer Farid al-Deeb, who told an Egyptian newspaper that Mubarak will be present for the second hearing, asked the judge to call 1,600 witnesses, including top military officials.

The military was called out on January 28, after protesters torched police stations across the country, and took charge on February 11 when Mubarak resigned.

Ahmed Mekki, a recently retired deputy head of Cairo’s appeals court, said the trial will now move to investigating the evidence and calling witnesses, first for the prosecution and then for the defence.

But the court will probably cull the list of witnesses demanded by Deeb, which would provide him with solid ground for appealing a possible guilty verdict, said one of the lawyers representing victims in civil suits.

“If the court does not listen to all the witnesses, it will give grounds for appeal,” said Taher Abu Nasr, whose Front for the Defence of Egyptian Protesters represents 35 plaintiffs.

“There will be an appeal, and the appeal will be successful,” Abu Nasr said.

Most of the lawyers have yet to review the thousands of documents of evidence that have been provided by the court, some say belatedly.

But judging by the cases of dozens of police commanders who face charges or are on trial over alleged crimes during the revolt, they fear the evidence against Mubarak to be patchy and ill-prepared.

Legal experts say that a thorough investigation into Mubarak’s alleged crimes should have taken several more months, but the military and the government expedited the process to mollify protesters.

“The prosecution (filed the case) perhaps before questioning people they should have questioned,” said Abu Nasr.

“The case was filed under street pressure,” said Mekki, adding that he believed the court would still conduct the trial fairly.

“The prosecution may be amenable to pressure, but the court will not rule unjustly,” he said.

More than 850 people were killed in the 18 days that led to Mubarak’s ouster, and thousands more were wounded. AGENCIES

Mubarak on phone from Sharm: source

CAIRO: Egypt’s deposed President Hosni Mubarak is taking telephone calls in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said a source who spoke to him Tuesday.

“He’s fine,” the source said. “He is at his residence in Sharm el-Sheikh with his family. He is receiving telephone calls. I spoke to him at 3 o’clock (1300 GMT) this afternoon.”

Speculation about Mubarak’s health has swirled since he was forced to resign Friday.

The Saudi-owned daily Asharq al-Awsat reported that Mubarak was ailing and had refused to travel abroad for treatment.

“What is certain is that his state of health is declining drastically. In addition there is information that he is refusing to receive the required medical treatment,” Asharq al-Awsat said in its online edition, quoting a former security official affiliated to the Egyptian military high command.

A military source told Reuters Mubarak was “breathing” but would not give details about his status.

The Higher Military Council took over Egypt when Mubarak resigned Friday following an 18-day revolt against him.

Asharq al-Awsat said Mubarak, 82, had refused advice to travel to Germany for treatment, quoting its source as saying: “He has asked those around him to allow him to die in his country, and I believe this is just a matter of time.”

Mubarak underwent gallbladder surgery in Germany last year. Rumors about his health have been rife since then.

While still clinging to office, Mubarak said in his final speeches to the nation that he would die in Egypt. Agencies

Egypt: President Mubarak refuses to step down

In a television address President Mubarak said that he would transfer power to prove that the demands of protesters will be met by dialogue. He said that his newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman would serve as a transitional leader. Egypt s President Hosni Mubarak looked likely to step aside on Thursday after the military high command took control of the nation in what some called a military coup after two weeks of unprecedented protests. Convinced about the honest intentions of young protesters, Mubarak was also said to be set to repeat that he would not run for another term as president in September elections. Anything less than quitting could provoke a powerful reaction from the street where the core of protesters want his immediate resignation and reject any political maneuvering that allows him to stay on in some capacity, perhaps as a figurehead. News that Mubarak may hand over power, or be unseated, in this key American ally in the Middle East had provoked loud and emotional cheers in Cairo s Tahrir Square, the focal point for pro-democracy demonstrations. But some in the crowd were quick to protest they did not want military rule.

Ahead of the address, hundreds of thousands flocked to the square and the surrounding streets with some organizers saying this had been the biggest turnout yet to celebrate their role in modern Egyptian history. Some danced and others played drums just out of joy and excitement. Mubarak would announce constitutional procedures before handing over powers.

Egypt President Announces New Govt

Breaking News

CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak swore in a new Cabinet on Monday, replacing one dissolved as a concession to unprecedented anti-government protests.

In the most significant change, the interior minister — who heads internal security forces — was replaced. A retired police general, Mahmoud Wagdi, was named to replace Habib el-Adly, who is widely despised by protesters for brutality shown by security forces.

Still, the new Cabinet is unlikely to satisfy the tens of thousands of protests who have taken to the streets in cities across Egypt the past week demanding the ouster of Mubarak and his entire regime.

When Mubarak announced the dissolving of the previous government late Friday and named his intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as his vice president, protesters on the streets rejected the move as an attempt by Mubarak, Egypt’s authoritarian ruler of nearly 30 years, to cling to power.

The new line-up of Cabinet ministers announced on state television included stalwarts of Mubarak’s regime but purged several of the prominent businessmen who held economic posts and have engineered the country’s economic liberalization policies the past decades.

Many Egyptians resented to influence of millionaire politician-moguls, who were close allies of the president’s son, Gamal Mubarak, long thought to be the heir apparent.

In the new Cabinet, Mubarak retained his long-serving defense minister, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

The longest-serving Cabinet minister, Culture Minister Farouq Hosni, was replaced by Gaber Asfour, a widely respected literary figure.

Egypt’s most famous archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, was named state minister for antiquities, a new post.

Egypt Protesters Camp out in Cairo

Breaking News

Egypt Protesters Camp out in Cairo

CAIRO: Egyptian protesters were camped out in central Cairo Monday and vowed to stay until they had toppled President Hosni Mubarak, whose fate appeared to hang on the military as pressure mounted from the street and abroad.

“The army has to choose between Egypt and Mubarak,” read one banner in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where demonstrators shared food with soldiers sent to restore order after violent protests shook Mubarak’s 30-year rule to its core.

Six days of unrest has killed more than 100 people but the two sides have reached a stalemate. Protesters refuse to go, while the army is not moving them. The longer protesters stay unchallenged, the more untenable Mubarak’s position seems.

Protesters in Tahrir Square — epicenter of the earthquake that has sent shudders through the Middle East and among global investors — have dismissed Mubarak’s appointment of military men as his vice president and prime minister.

His promises of economic reform to address public anger at rising prices, unemployment and huge gap between rich and poor have failed to halt their broader calls for a political sweep out of Mubarak and his associates.

Protesters have called for a general strike Monday and what they bill as a “protest of the millions” march Tuesday, to press their demands for democracy which could spell the end for the military establishment which has run post-colonial Egypt since the 1950s.

The United States, an ally which has poured billions of dollars of aid into Egypt since Mubarak came to power, stopped just short of saying openly that it wanted him out. Officials including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about “an orderly transition.”

A senior U.S. administration official, who declined to be identified, said the feeling among Obama’s national security aides was that Mubarak’s time had passed, but it was up to Egyptians to determine what happens next.

Mubarak, a former air force chief, has turned to his military commanders, meeting them Sunday. They seem to hold his future in their hands. Egypt’s defense minister spoke by phone to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Sunday.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and highest-ranking U.S. military officer, praised the “professionalism” of Egypt’s armed forces as its troops refrained from a crackdown on protesters. Egypt receives about $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid.

The crisis in Egypt follows a revolt that toppled the leader of Tunisia two weeks ago, and a wave of popular anger sweeping other countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

Financial markets around the globe opened Monday bracing for the impact of the weekend’s events in Egypt. Brent oil hit a 28-month high, pennies below $100 a barrel. The dollar rose in Asian trade as investors sought a safe haven.

“The greater fear is that the turmoil could spread to other Middle East countries, including even Saudi Arabia. If that happens, then all bets for oil prices are off,” ANZ Bank economist Sharon Zollner said in a note to clients.

Clinton calls for ‘orderly transition’ in Egypt

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Sunday for an “orderly transition” in Egypt but stopped short of demanding President Hosni Mubarak step down as protests engulfed his regime.

Mubarak, who appointed military intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as his first ever vice president on Saturday and named a new premier to try to assuage his people’s thirst for change, must go further, Clinton said.

“That is the beginning, the bare beginning of what needs to happen, which is a process that leads to the kind of concrete steps to achieve democratic and economic reform that we’ve been urging,” she told ABC News.

As the anti-government revolt in Egypt raged into a sixth day amid increasing lawlessness and mass jail breaks, Clinton did a sweep of Sunday morning talk shows in the United States to outline the US position.

“We’re trying to promote an orderly transition and change that will respond to the legitimate grievances of the Egyptian people, which the protests are all about,” she told CBS.

“We are urging the Mubarak government, which is still in power, we are urging the military, which is a very respected institution in Egypt, to do what is necessary to facilitate that kind of orderly transition.”

President Barack Obama’s administration has performed a delicate balancing act over the past week, pushing for reform while refusing to cut off its crucial military aid or call directly on Mubarak, a longtime ally, to go.

“There is no discussion as of this time about cutting off any aid” to Egypt, Clinton reiterated on ABC.

US military aid to Egypt amounts to $1.3 billion a year, and the total American aid bill to the country averages close to $2 billion annually.

In 2007, Washington committed to providing $13 billion in military aid to Egypt over 10 years as part of a wider military aid package for its Middle Eastern allies.

Meanwhile, as the protests continued for a sixth day and the toll soared above 100, the United States has started organizing the evacuation of their nationals.

“The US embassy in Cairo informs US citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the department of state is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Europe,” an embassy statement said.

President Barack Obama gathered his national security team at the White House Saturday for a session lasting just over an hour on the latest developments in Egypt.

The US president “reiterated our focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint; supporting universal rights; and supporting concrete steps that advance political reform within Egypt,” a White House statement said.

Egypt chaos: Mubarak refuses to step down

Breaking News Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to bow to demands that he resign after ordering troops and tanks into cities in an attempt to quell protests against his 30-year rule. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is due to appoint a new government after firing his previous administration amid a wave of protests against his rule. Demonstrators were still out in the streets in the early hours of the morning, as were looters.

Parts of Cairo resembled a war zone, filled with smoke, rubble and the smell of tear gas. Mubarak dismissed his government and called for national dialogue to avert chaos after a day of battles between police and protestors. Medical sources said at least 24 people had been killed and over a thousand injured in clashes in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. ‘It is not by setting fire and by attacking private and public property that we achieve the aspirations of Egypt and its sons, but they will be achieved through dialogue, awareness and effort,’ he said in a televised address, his first public appearance since the protests began four days ago.US President Barack Obama said he had spoken with Mubarak and urged ‘concrete steps that advance the rights of the Egyptian people’.The army, deployed for the first time in the crisis, cleared Cairo’s Tahrir square towards midnight. Shortly after Mubarak’s speech, protestors returned in their hundreds, defying a curfew. They said sacking the cabinet was far from enough.’It was never about the government, by God. It is you (Mubarak) who has to go What you have done to the people is enough’ said one protestor.

Shots were heard in the evening near parliament and the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party was in flames, the blaze lighting up the night sky. Cars were set alight and police posts torched. More than half of the dead in yesterday’s clashes were reported in Suez, the eastern city which has been ground zero for the most violent protests over the past four days.Mubarak, 82, has been a close ally of Washington and beneficiary of US aid for decades.The protests were triggered by the overthrow two weeks ago of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Al Ben Ali. Street protests in Tunis focused on similar issues of poverty and political repression. Demonstrations have also flared in Yemen, Algeria, Sudan and Jordan in recent weeks.

MPA Haroon Sultan used to torture wife

Member Punjab Assembly Haroon Sultan has found torturing his newly-wed wife and beating her up due to which she fell unconscious and got shifted to hospital for treatment.
Haroon Sultan, an MPA from Muzaffargarh, married Mubarak Fatima, a daughter of ex-minister Sajjad Haider, about two months ago. The mother of the victim has accused that Haroon Sultan started torturing her daughter soon after the marriage but Mubarak Fatima did not tell her anything to safe her marital life. Mubarak Fatima, who fell unconscious, telephoned her uncle in Lahore who brought her to the hospital where her condition was stated to be critical. Her mother did not register a case but prayed to Allah for justice.

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