Mubarak trial resumes as prosecution states charges against ousted dictator

Ahram Online , Tuesday 3 Jan 2012

Egypt's 'trial of century' adjourned until Wednesday; murder, corruption charges to be prosecuted separately

Mubarak
Mubarak trial continues with the prosecutor detailing the charges against the toppled leader (Photo: Reuters)

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak arrived at Cairo police academy Tuesday morning – along with his two sons, former interior minister Habib El-Adly and six of the latter’s assistants – for another session of the ongoing trial in which the defendants face charges of corruption, abuse of power, and the murder of unarmed protesters during Egypt’s January revolution.

One of the defendants, former assistant interior minister Ahmed Ramzy, ex-head of the ministry’s hated Central Security Forces, reportedly did not attend Tuesday’s court session due to health reasons.

During the proceedings, prosecutor Mostafa Soliman accused the former president of creating a “corrupt system” and of grooming his younger son, Gamal, for the presidency. Soliman described the Mubarak era as one “marked by corruption, sham elections and dictatorship.”

He went on to charge the elder Mubarak with putting his and his family’s interests above those of the public.

The prosecutor also accused business tycoon and close Mubarak associate Hussein Salem with exploiting his proximity to the president to obtain public land at fire-sale prices.

Soliman also accused El-Adly of creating “an oppressive security apparatus that brutally worked to further the president’s interests rather than those of the Egyptian public.”

The trial is scheduled to resume on Wednesday, when the two cases – that dealing with the murder of protesters and that dealing with corruption, abuse of authority, the squandering of public funds and gas exports to Israel – are expected to be formally separated.

Since the trial began in early August, defence lawyers have called for the two cases to be prosecuted independent of one another.

During the January uprising 846 were killed and some around 11,000 injured.

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