* First trial of deposed Arab leader in ordinary civilian
court
* Mubarak hospitalised since before court hearings began
* Verdict comes two weeks before presidential run-off vote
By Edmund Blair and Dina Zayed
CAIRO, June 2 (Reuters) – Hosni Mubarak, who governed Egypt
for 30 years before a popular uprising toppled him last year,
will hear a judge rule on Saturday on whether he is guilty of
graft and complicity in the killing of protesters.
Hundreds of police surrounded the court set up at the Police
Academy on Cairo’s outskirts. Protesters gathered outside
holding up images of those killed in the uprising and calling
for Mubarak’s execution. “Dear God, take Mubarak and those with
him!” they chanted.
If convicted, the 84-year-old former president could face
anything from a few years in jail to the death penalty.
Few Egyptians expect he will go to the gallows, even if some
think that is what he deserves. Protesters have often hung his
effigy from lamp posts since he fell on Feb. 22, 2011.
Mubarak’s two sons, standing trial with their father,
alongside his former interior minister and six other senior
officers, arrived at the court, state media reported.
It is the first time an Arab leader ousted by his people has
been placed before a regular court. Mubarak’s trial had Arabs
glued to the television last year and sent a message to other
autocrats battling rebellions what fate might await them.
“Mubarak’s trial has the potential to set a meaningful
regional precedent for accountability for human rights abuses
and for upholding international fair trial standards,” Human
Rights Watch wrote in a report before the session.
But the ruling could not come at a more sensitive time for
Egypt, right in the middle of a fraught presidential election
that pits a figure from the Muslim Brotherhood, banned under
Mubarak, against the deposed leader’s last prime minister.
The verdict could herald more political turmoil, although
Judge Ahmed Refaat, who has already had three months to consider
his decision, could postpone it if he needs more time.
“It cannot be that, after 15 months of the revolution and
the crimes committed, Mubarak is not punished. This would
destroy any trust in the judiciary,” said engineer Saad Ali, 35.
An acquittal or a light sentence could send protesters back
on the streets. Many are already angry that the hated police
force, blamed for about 850 deaths in the uprising, and other
pillars of Mubarak’s rule have survived his downfall intact.
WHEELED INTO COURT
A conviction would prompt demands for Mubarak to be
transferred to prison from the hospital where he has been held
in custody. The other defendants, who include his two sons,
Gamal and Alaa, his former interior minister Habib al-Adli and
six senior security officials, have been held in a Cairo jail.
Egyptians saw Mubarak as they had never seen him before when
his trial opened on Aug. 3, about six months after he was
ousted. The man once at the centre of ceremonial state events
was wheeled into the court on a hospital gurney.
He has appeared on a stretcher for each session since then,
suffering from undefined ailments, and flown in by helicopter
from a military hospital on the edge of the sprawling capital.
His sons have stayed close to him in the cage for defendants
used in all Egyptian criminal courts. The trial has unfolded in
a special courtroom in a police academy on the edge of Cairo.
He has rarely spoken except to declare his presence and deny
the charges, including accusations that he was behind brutal
police tactics used to quell mass protests that erupted on Jan.
25, 2011. He was driven from office 18 days later.
Outside the court, Mubarak’s supporters and his opponents
have often clashed, hurling stones and abuse at each other.
Those divisions are now playing out in the presidential
race. In a June 16 and 17 run-off, Ahmed Shafiq, an ex-air force
chief like Mubarak, will face the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi.
Shafiq has called his former boss a role model. His Islamist
rival says that if he becomes president he will ensure enough
evidence is produced to keep Mubarak behind bars for life.
“It is not possible to release Mubarak,” Mursi told Reuters
on Thursday. “I promise the martyrs (of the uprising) will
retrieve their rights in full, God willing.”
(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad; Writing by Edmund Blair;
Editing by Alistair Lyon and Mark Heinrich)
