Egypt: How did the ‘trial of the century’ set Mubarak free?

Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak (Rnd hg a court hearing on November 29, 2014 in the capital Cairo. AFP

By: Ahmad Jamaleddine

Published Monday, December 1, 2014

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could have stood trial before a "revolutionary” tribunal during the two months when the constitution was suspended under the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF). However, he was protected by the former public prosecutor through legal maneuvering, and the judiciary proceeded with exploiting legal loopholes to set him free.

Cairo – The period between the issuance of the decision by former Egyptian public prosecutor Abdel-Majid Mahmoud to imprison deposed President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons in 2011, and the decision to acquit them along with Mubarak's interior minister and other security officials was not very long. Three years do not count for much compared to Mubarak's 30-year rule. His period of incarceration became like some sort of absolution, compelling the anchor on Sada al-Balad TV station to address him as "Mr. President" in his first audio interview after the "not guilty” verdict [was issued].

Through the decision to jail Mubarak, former public prosecutor Mahmoud seems to have preserved his position for over 15 months, amid calls by the revolutionary youths for his dismissal on the ground that he is a symbol of the former regime. The verdict issued on Saturday has shown that Mubarak's time in jail was a sort of protection provided by Mahmoud.

Although the public prosecutor enjoys legal immunity and cannot be removed, the period that followed Mubarak’s resignation and the transfer of power to SCAF under Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi witnessed a suspension of the constitution (during which it was possible to form revolutionary tribunals). The parliament was also dissolved, which is a period that lasted nearly two-months until the introduction of amendments to the constitution after the March 19 [2011] referendum.

With the ratification of the constitutional amendments, the time period which could have allowed the removal of Mubarak's men in the judiciary through revolutionary trials – as demanded by the demonstrators at Tahrir Square – ended. Somehow, Mubarak turned from someone who is accused of political corruption and responsibility (at least politically) for the crimes committed during his rule to a suspect in a handful of cases, in which he was successively acquitted.

What the Egyptians did not know back then was that the public prosecutor, who was appointed by Mubarak and supervised the investigations with him, is the one who declared him not guilty.

The exploitation of shortcomings in laws and regulations began to clear the way for Mubarak’s acquittal. What the Egyptians did not know back then was that the public prosecutor, who was appointed by Mubarak and supervised the investigations with him, is the one who declared him not guilty. The prosecution that investigated the killing of the protesters did not include Mubarak as a suspect, until it yielded to popular pressure and referred him to a “criminal” court based on a charge for which he was seen as guilty in advance. At the time, this procedure could only be understood by legal experts.

It is well known that litigation procedures in the Egyptian criminal courts pass through three stages. The first stage begins at the Criminal Court, after which the case is referred to another criminal department if the Court of Cassation accepts the appeal. At the last stage, the Court of Cassation looks into the case and delivers a final verdict. In Mubarak's case, the prosecution will have to appeal the “not guilty” verdicts at the Court of Cassation, which may accept the appeal and reopen the trial, or accept the verdict as final. In any case, the Court of Cassation has thousands of cases to look into, which means it could take months or years to set a trial date for and adjudicate.

Judicial sources indicated to Al-Akhbar that Mubarak's trial cost the state treasury more than $15 million, which covered Mubarak’s stay at Tora Prison Hospital, Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital, the International Medical Center, and al-Maadi Hospital. They are all military establishments where the former president received special treatment in terms of visitation rights and phone use contrary to Egyptian prison regulations. This also happened during deposed President Mohammed Mursi's term.

Judicial sources told Al-Akhbar that Mubarak has about two more months in prison, before he is released, since his time spent in jail (3.5 years) will be deducted from the three-year prison sentence issued by the court in the presidential palaces case. The nine months during which he was released will be excluded from his time served. The sources gave two possible scenarios for Mubarak’s remaining in jail after the end of his sentence period. "He would be kept under house arrest in the event of the declaration of a state of emergency in accordance with the law, or jailed in connection with other cases. But both options are entirely unlikely," the sources revealed.

In the same context, former head of the criminal court, Counselor Rifaat al-Sayyed, said that the court has not yet exonerated Mubarak in the bribery case involving businessman Hussein Salem. "However, it decided that the criminal case has expired under the statute of limitations, which compelled the court president to address the legislature to amend the law to avoid the the dismissal of the bribery case due to the expiration of the statute of limitations," he explained. According to Sayyed, the judge's decision based on the lack of probable cause to file a lawsuit against Mubarak is "due to a procedural mistake by the public prosecution, when it did not include his name in the list of suspects the first time it was issued."

Judicial sources indicated to Al-Akhbar that Mubarak's trial cost the state treasury more than $15 million…

However, the surprise was in the court’s verdict regarding the lack of "probable cause to file a lawsuit against Mubarak regarding the killing of demonstrators." This is the same item used by Mursi's lawyer in charges related to incitement to the murder of protesters outside al-Ittihadiya Presidential Palace during the demonstrations against the constitutional declaration held at the end of 2012. The prosecutor declared the lack of probable cause to file a lawsuit, but later used the incident as one of the major cases against Mursi. On Sunday, the Cairo Criminal Court decided to resume the proceedings in the prison break case that took place after the January 25 Revolution, which involves Mursi and 130 other suspects.

As for Mubarak's sons, apart from the cases related to manipulation in the Egyptian Stock Exchange, there are no longer any cases for them to be tried for. This paves the way for their release within a few months, after they finish their sentence related to the presidential palace case, which will be considered by the Court of Cassation next January following an appeal by the two men's lawyer, Farid al-Dib.

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.

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"Egypt On The Brink: From Nasser To Mubarak"

 

Via Free Thought Manifesto

 

Submitted By "Sayf Maslul"

Source "Press TV"
Courtesy Of "YouTube"

In this edition of the show we discuss the book: Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak, written by Tarek Osman.

Famous until the 1950s for its religious pluralism and extraordinary cultural heritage, Egypt is now seen as an increasingly repressive and divided land, home of the Muslim Brotherhood and an opaque regime headed by the aging President Mubarak.

In this immensely readable and thoroughly researched book, Tarek Osman explores what has happened to the biggest Arab nation since President Nasser took control of the country in 1954.

He examines Egypt's central role in the development of the two crucial movements of the period, Arab nationalism and radical Islam; the increasingly contentious relationship between Muslims and Christians.

And perhaps most important of all, the rift between the cosmopolitan elite and the mass of the undereducated and underemployed population, more than half of whom are aged under thirty.



Posted by CavalierZee at 8:00 PM

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Prison Mulled for Mubarak, Health Unstable

Local Editor

Egypt on Thursday mulled sending Hosni Mubarak to jail or to a prison hospital as reports emerged the ousted president's health is "unstable" and a court ruled that his name be removed from public places.

Alaa Mubarak

Egypt's public prosecutor Abdel Magid Mahmud Mahmud has ordered a medical team to head to Sharm el-Sheikh where Mubarak is under arrest in hospital to "establish his latest health condition and the possibility of having him transferred to Tora prison or to the prison hospital," his office said.



Jamal Mubarak

 The prosecutor has also ordered that preparations be made at the hospital in Tora prison, in Cairo's south.

The medical team will head to Tora prison hospital "to evaluate the facilities and equipment, and make the necessary preparations to have former president Hosni Mubarak moved there based on his medical condition," it said.

Mubarak, 82, "is in suite 309 and his health is unstable," a medical source in Sharm el-Sheikh was quoted as saying by MENA.

Mubarak, who quit February 11, is being held in connection with violence against protesters during 18 days of anti-regime rallies that ended his 30-year grip on power. He is also being questioned on corruption charges.

His two sons, Alaa and Gamal - along with several of his ministers and senior aides - are also being held in the Tora prison complex on various charges as part of a sweeping probe into corruption and abuse.

An official commission said on Tuesday that Mubarak was complicit in shootings of anti-regime protesters as he tried to face down the popular revolt.

Judge Omar Marwan, the commission's secretary general, was speaking at a news conference after the release of its report's summary, which said 846 civilians killed in the protests that led to Mubarak's ouster.

Twenty-six policemen were also killed in the unrest, the report said, adding that police used excessive force against demonstrators and shot at people trying to film the events from balconies and windows.

"What is confirmed is that Mubarak's permission (to use live fire on protesters) must be obtained. The shooting lasted for several days, and he did not hold accountable those who fired live rounds," Marwan said.

"That confirms his involvement in responsibility," he said.

Mubarak was last week remanded to 15 days' preventive custody in a hospital room. He was hospitalized last week after a heart attack.

His former interior minister Habib al-Adly is on trial for the shootings, while his former spy Chief Omar Suleiman, who was briefly vice president in his last days in office, was grilled Tuesday in connection with violence against demonstrators.

The commission's report found that most of the dead had been shot in the head and chest, which indicated the use of snipers.

Suzan Mubarak

 "If (the bullets) did not kill the victims, they maimed their faces and destroyed eyes," the report said, adding that hospitals reported "a large number of eye injuries" from gunshots.

“The perception that Gamal Mubarak, a 47-year-old former investment banker, was widely seen as his father's heir to the presidency, as well as a flawed parliamentary election in November 2010 that left Mubarak's National Democratic Party with more than 90 percent of seats, spurred the nationwide protests that ended the strongman's three decades in power,” the commission said in its report.

Meanwhile a Cairo court ruled Thursday that the name of Mubarak and that of his wife, Suzanne, be removed from all "public places, streets, libraries and other public institutions across the country," MENA reported quoting Judge Mohammed Hassan Omar.

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Wikileaks: Gamal Mubarak viewed Tantawi as a 'threat to his presidential ambitions'

Via FLC

S E C R E T CAIRO 000974

1. (C) Summary: In a recent meeting with poloff, independent parliamentarian Anwar Esmat El Sadat (protect), nephew of the former President, discussed presidential son Gamal Mubarak's possible succession of his father, and opined that Gamal increasingly views Minister of Defense Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and EGIS head Omar Suleiman as a threat to his presidential ambitions. Sadat alleged that Tantawi recently told him, in confidence, of his deepening frustration with Gamal.....

Opining that "Gamal and his clique" are becoming more confident in the inevitability of Gamal's succession, and are now angling to remove potential "stumbling blocks," Sadat said that speculation among Cairo's elite is that there could be a cabinet reshuffle as soon as May or June, in which Minister of Defense Tantawi and/or EGIS head Omar Suleiman would be replaced. "Those two are increasingly viewed as a threat by Gamal and those around him," and thus Gamal is reportedly pushing Mubarak to get them out of the way ... 

3. (S) Sadat said Tantawi had commented to him in a recent private meeting that, "he has had it 'up to here' with Gamal and his cronies, and the tremendous corruption they are facilitating." "Tantawi told me he is having trouble sleeping at night," he continued, "and that he cannot stand what has happened to the country, and what may yet happen to the country." Disappointed by the recent constitutional amendments, and skeptical about the will of either Mubarak or Gamal to push forward meaningful political reforms, Sadat 

possible way out for Egypt ... we are in a terrible spot, and 

that is the best of all the bad options available." (Note: Sadat provided no further details about a possible coup scenario, and appeared to simply be theorizing about the future. To date, we have not heard other interlocutors speculate about a possible coup option. End note).....

said he viewed a post-Mubarak military coup as "the best 

7. (S) Comment: While Sadat is a useful interlocutor and a well-placed parliamentarian, we stress that he is the only Embassy contact to date who has raised with us the spectre of a post-Mubarak military coup. While discussion of presidential succession is a favorite parlor game in Cairo salons, hypothesizing about the acutely sensitive topic of a coup is certainly not regularly undertaken in Egyptian circles.

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a precedent to socialism and to justice

F AD

The son of Husny was arrested.
and was tried immediately by a revolutionary tribunal.
The verdict was " Guilty " and he was sentenced
to have his head cut-off .


The hangman took the son by the river Nile
and stood on the docks of a small fisher´s harbour,
getting ready for the ceremony.......

At that moment ,
a fisherman comes and asks the hangman :
" why to cut off his head and throwing him in the Nile ?
it will be useless  for Egypt !! "

The hangman said:
" What else could we do , with him ???
what else can he do ??
he is the son of an Arab-President
he cannot work anything proper nor fruitful "

and the fisherman said :
" leave him with me , I shall teach him how to work
and to be useful to the society.
He shall wake-up early each day and go fishing at sunrise.
Then he comes back and clean the fishes ,
take them to the market , sell them,
make some honest money , come back home
and buy food for my children.
Then he could cook , clean the house
and then wash the boat and make it ready for the next day.
Like all honest working-people do.....each day, since Akhnaton "

The hangman replied to the fisherman :
" Let me think it over , go now ......
and do come back tomorrow, for my answer"


The son of Husny who has heard this conversation,
looked up to the hangman and said :
" do not think too much about this silly proposal,
it is too utopic !!
just do your job and cut-off my head  !!
we do not want, after all, 
to create a precedent to socialism and  to justice "


Raja Chemayel" HAKAWATEH "  fairy-tales-teller .....

Posted by Tlaxcala at 3:18 AM

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Mubarak Hospitalized, His Two Sons Detained for 15 Days

Mubarak Hospitalized

Security sources said on Tuesday that former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has been hospitalized in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he has been living since his overthrow last February.

"Mubarak was admitted to the Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital this afternoon, amid a very heavy security presence in the town," a security source told AFP.

Contacted by AFP, a hospital source refused to comment on the news and said that "the minister of health will make an announcement" shortly.

Mubarak, Two Sons Detained for 15 Days

Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak has been placed in detention for 15 days, prosecutors said Wednesday shortly after state media reported his two sons had also been detained.

Police said that Gamal and Alaa arrived at a Cairo prison where they will be detained for 15 days on suspicion of involvement in killing protesters and corruption. Nearly 800 people died during the uprising.

In a statement on the public prosecutor's Facebook page, a spokesman said the prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmoud authorised the detentions "as part of an inquiry into the use of force against protesters during the unrest in January and February."

Mubarak was admitted to hospital on Tuesday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh shortly after suffering a heart attack during questioning by prosecutors, state media said. It was not immediately clear where his 15-day detention would take place.

A security source said the two brothers were heading for the Tora prison in Cairo from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where they were interrogated.

Prosecutors had begun questioning Mubarak and his son Gamal earlier on Tuesday, Justice Minister Abdel Aziz al-Guindi said, adding that the questioning over acquiring wealth illegally had not yet started "as that will be handled by the department of illicit gains".

The prosecutor's summons came after the broadcast of an audio tape in which Mubarak defended his reputation and after weeks of mounting protests calling for him to be put on trial. In the audio message aired on the pan-Arab television network Al-Arabiya, Mubarak complained he was the victim of a smear campaign.

Mubarak tried to escape the country to Saudi Arabia

"... According to "Al Wafd" daily, the traffic control tower at Sharm el-Sheikh airport got requests of two private flights from Tabuk airport heading to Sharm El-Sheikh and then Riyadh airport and a helicopter from Sharm El-Sheikh airport to Tabuk. A source at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport said the information was that the helicopter is expected to take Mubarak family members to Saudi Arabia. This was an attempt of the former president to escape after the declaration by the Attorney General to officially call him and his two sons to investigation. The control tower immediately notified the Civil Aviation Authority and shortly afterwards received an order not to approve any private jet flight heading to Sharm El-Sheikh or out of there until the issuance of further instructions."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 10:01 AM

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US freezing Despots' money: 'A matter of days' for some & never for others!

Via FLC

More than a month after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the United States has yet to respond to a request by Cairo to freeze his assets, Egyptian officials say. In a country where a politically emancipated public is eager to hold the former authoritarian government to account, Washington’s delay is deepening already negative feelings toward the United States. Egyptian activists point to the quickness with which U.S. officials moved to freeze the assets of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi. U.S. officials say they are still reviewing the request by Egypt’s prosecutor general, but they add privately that the matter is more complicated than a simple freezing of funds. U.S. officials say that in Libya’s case, they were able to freeze $32 billion in a matter of days ... The rationale — stemming funding for an autocrat firing on his own people — was also much clearer. (Mubarak killed just under 2000 of his own people!) But in the case of Mubarak — an individual rather than a state power, and now a former president — the situation is murkier, officials say........

 

“There are unrealistically high expectations in Egypt about the Mubarak money,” said Michele Dunne, a Middle East expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “As an American, it’s one of the first things Egyptians bring up in conversation with you. They say, ‘You in the West are on trial here.’ There are suspicions that we’re just sitting on top of millions for Mubarak.” In Cairo, Egypt’s newly appointed justice minister talked this week about the importance of recovering such assets. “We must collect evidence that these monies were collected illegally so that foreign countries agree to freeze these accounts,” Mohamed Abdel Aziz el-Gendy told reporters. He added that Egypt had sent experts abroad to track down the money and start legal procedures. ....... A U.S. government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said the Justice Department has been working with the Egyptian government to determine whether any U.S. accounts or assets are the ill-gotten proceeds of Mubarak or his family (OR WHAT? HARD EARNED CASH FROM 'DESPOTING'?). A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment...."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 5:44 PM

"Egypt is pushed to seek debt relief"

(Dow Jones) - Egypt's balance of payments deficit could swell to almost $3 billion as the first quarter ends, and the country could be pushed to seek further debt-relief options, analysts for Roubini Global Economics said Thursday. "We believe that Egypt would turn first to bilateral sources of capital....to the European Union, to the U.S.," said senior research analyst Rachel Ziemba on a teleconference with reporters. She didn't completely rule out Egypt turning to the IMF for help with its debt issues.....

"Egypt has been facing more and more difficulty in trying to sell its Treasury bills. The yields have been rising," says research analyst Ayah El Said. "We've seen at the end of February Egypt seeking some debt relief from EU members. Nothing has materialized in this regard, but we expect Egypt to start seeking further debt relief options."...

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 5:52 PM

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Egypt is still 'Mubarakstan'

Via FLC

"... Egyptians now realise that Mubarakstan, the virtual edifice created by Mubarak and his coterie to ensure the continued dominance of a closed circle of politicians and businessmen, hasn't collapsed along with the fall of its head and protector. It is also distressingly evident that Mubarak was nothing more than the visible tip of an iceberg of corruption, for Mubarakstan is in fact a full-fledged state – a colonial power in every sense of the word, a state with its own colonial discourse, its propaganda machine and its brutal militia. It even has its own capital in the city of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the ruling elite eat their imported dinners and lounge on sumptuous sandy beaches..... 

The state of Mubarakstan even boasts its own bank. The Arab Bank, which stands on Egyptian soil, is nonetheless an offshore business enterprise that is completely outside the Egyptian government's jurisdiction. This was where Egypt's billionaires deposited their loot ...  

More serious still, state television and newspapers are still headed by the same pro-Mubarak propaganda team who falsified facts during the protests... Another bewildering phenomenon is the security situation. Almost daily we hear of prisons being forcibly opened, of fires breaking out in sensitive establishments, including the interior ministry and the Central Bank. These are often glossed over with no information provided. Equally ominous is the unleashing of Islamists of various affiliations on the Egyptian scene. A few days before the referendum on constitutional amendments (which was turned intentionally, it seems, into a holy war) some radical Islamists were released from prison, including Aboud al-Zomor who had been implicated in the murder of Sadat. Not only was he set free at this particular juncture, but he was also given a hero's welcome on TV and in the papers...."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 10:02 AM

Gamal Mubarak's supporters form a party with Pan Arab aspirations ... (look at you!)

Via FLC

" A coalition formed to support the son of former President Hosni Mubarak for the presidency is seeking to establish a political party. Supporters of Gamal Mubarak are attempting to maintain their political activities past the post-Mubarak era.

Gamal al-Menshawy, a founder of  al-Sahwa al-Arabiya (The Arab Renaissance), said the new entity includes Magdi al-Kurdy, the leader of the popular pro-Gamal campaign. He said the new party upholds concepts and goals that have not yet been addressed, adding that it embraces Egyptians from all social classes....

He explained that one of the party's goals is to establish a confederation of Arab states, with each state preserving its own political system, in addition to issuing a unified Arab currency, a common Arab economic market and a joint Arab army... Last August, al-Kurdy, then an unknown political activist, banded together a coalition to support Gamal for presidency. The ruling NDP denied any links to the campaign."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 8:15 PM

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Egypt is still 'Mubarakstan'

Via FLC

"... Egyptians now realise that Mubarakstan, the virtual edifice created by Mubarak and his coterie to ensure the continued dominance of a closed circle of politicians and businessmen, hasn't collapsed along with the fall of its head and protector. It is also distressingly evident that Mubarak was nothing more than the visible tip of an iceberg of corruption, for Mubarakstan is in fact a full-fledged state – a colonial power in every sense of the word, a state with its own colonial discourse, its propaganda machine and its brutal militia. It even has its own capital in the city of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the ruling elite eat their imported dinners and lounge on sumptuous sandy beaches..... 

The state of Mubarakstan even boasts its own bank. The Arab Bank, which stands on Egyptian soil, is nonetheless an offshore business enterprise that is completely outside the Egyptian government's jurisdiction. This was where Egypt's billionaires deposited their loot ...  

More serious still, state television and newspapers are still headed by the same pro-Mubarak propaganda team who falsified facts during the protests... Another bewildering phenomenon is the security situation. Almost daily we hear of prisons being forcibly opened, of fires breaking out in sensitive establishments, including the interior ministry and the Central Bank. These are often glossed over with no information provided. Equally ominous is the unleashing of Islamists of various affiliations on the Egyptian scene. A few days before the referendum on constitutional amendments (which was turned intentionally, it seems, into a holy war) some radical Islamists were released from prison, including Aboud al-Zomor who had been implicated in the murder of Sadat. Not only was he set free at this particular juncture, but he was also given a hero's welcome on TV and in the papers...."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 10:02 AM

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EGYPT: Demonstrators are nipping in the bud any of Gamal Mubarak's dream to rule.

 

Gamal Mubarak picture 

with the traffic sign on his face. 

Arabic slogan reads: "Egypt is too big for you to govern"

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