Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will be going on trial in Egypt for 'murder of unarmed protesters'. If he's found guilty, he could be executed.
Mubarak and his sons, Gamal and Alaa will also face corruption charges.
The new regime acted to head off a massive protest aimed at forcing the regime to take harsher action against the Mubaraks,among other demands such as an end to the country's decades-old emergency law, the dissolution of municipal councils, and the creation of an advisory panel to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
This is a way for the new junta, headed by Mubarak's former defense minister, to throw the mob a crumb to avoid dealing with the other demands and to put some daylight between themselves and the ousted leader.
Mubarak is being charged with “with premeditation” to kill “peaceful” demonstrators, and also with “inciting some officers and members of the police to fire their weapons at the victims, shoot them and run over them with vehicles, and to kill some of them in order to terrorize the rest and force them to relinquish their demands.” Over 800 people died in the protests.
The octogenarian Mubarak is still hospitalized after a heart attack, while his sons rot in a notorious Cairo prison along with other former regime figures waiting their turn for trials.Egyptian prosecutors said that a medical team was examining Mr. Mubarak this week to see if he was fit for transfer to that prison.
The net extended to Hosni Mubarak's wife Susan, who was ordered into a 15-day detention for questioning over accusations that she obtained illegal gain from her husband's position. She made deal with the junta to receive immunity from prosecution in exchange for handing over two fat bank accounts and the deed to a villa in Cairo.
No date for the trials has been set, and it remains to be seen if Mubarak will be dragged into court in his present condition.
As I mentioned before, he and his sons were just a little late getting out of Egypt.
1 comment:
"As I mentioned before, he and his sons were just a little late getting out of the country."
Given how this all went down, this is hardly surprising that they were not able to get out of the country fast enough. They managed to lose the support of the military and most of the rest of the power brokers in the country and apparently this all happened quite quickly. As such, it comes as no surprise they would not know they needed to leave the country until it was to late.
Its not surprising that grossly incompetent intellegece services like those in America would be caught by surprise by this whole thing. Egypt's intellegence services are much more competent. As such, it seems hard to believe they would have been caught by surprise. Apparently Mr. Mubarak lost even their support!! A leader, especially a dictator, will have to lean heavily on his/her intellegence services if they wish to govern successfully.
Just who is organizing the "Arab spring?" Why aren't enterprising reporters asking this question? My first thoughts are this will not lead to genuine "democratic" reforms. All that will happen is that one set of repressive governments will be replaced with other repressive governments but if we had some idea whose behind this we might be able to get a better idea of where this is headed. Once we know where it is headed, we might be better able to chart a course for our international policies.
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