Hosni Mubarak to serve life term in prison

[waltky]

Sentencing stuns Egypt...

Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak gets life in prison
2 June`12 – Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison Saturday for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising that forced him from power last year. The ousted president and his sons were acquitted, however, of corruption charges in a mixed verdict that swiftly provoked a new wave of anger on Egypt's streets.

Revolutionary groups and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood have called for a massive protest at Tahrir Square, the heart of the uprising, at 5 p.m. local time. After the sentencing, the 84-year old Mubarak suffered a "health crisis" while on a helicopter flight to a Cairo prison hospital, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. One state media report said it was a heart attack, but that could not immediately be confirmed.

The officials said Mubarak cried in protest and resisted leaving the helicopter that took him to a prison hospital for the first time since he was detained in April 2011. Mubarak stayed at a regular hospital in his favorite Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh from his arrest until his trial began in on Aug. 3. The officials said he insisted on the helicopter that he be flown to the military hospital on the eastern outskirts of Cairo where he has stayed during the trial. Mubarak finally left the chopper and moved to the Torah prison hospital more than two hours after his helicopter landed there.

Earlier, Mubarak sat stone-faced and frowning in the courtroom's metal defendants' cage while judge Ahmed Rifaat read out the conviction and sentence against him, showing no emotion with his eyes concealed by dark sunglasses. His sons Gamal and Alaa looked nervous but also did not react to either the conviction of their father or their own acquittals. Mubarak was convicted of complicity in the killing of some 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising that forced him to resign in February 2011. He and his two sons were acquitted of corruption charges, along with a family friend who is on the run.

Rifaat opened the session with a strongly worded statement before handing down the verdicts. He expressed deep sympathy for the uprising. "The people released a collective sigh of relief after a nightmare that did not, as is customary, last for a night, but for almost 30 black, black, black years — darkness that resembled a winter night. "The revolution by the people of Egypt was inspired by God. They did not seek a luxurious life or to sit atop the world, but asked their politicians, rulers and those in authority to give them a decent life and a bite to eat," he said. "They peacefully demanded democracy from rulers who held a tight grip on power."

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Hosni Mubarak Life Sentencing Stuns Egypt
Jun 2, 2012 : Ousted president Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of protesters. Dan Ephron on how the ruling instantly divided the nation—and why an appeal could reverse it.

Judges in the trial of ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak might have thought their ruling had something for everyone. The three-member panel sentenced Mubarak and his former interior minister to life in prison on Saturday for the killing of hundreds of protesters last year, but acquitted top security officials of the same charges. Instead, their decision—which also cleared Mubarak and his two sons of corruption—appears to have angered both sides of an increasingly polarized Egyptian street: opponents of the old regime and people who feel it’s time to set aside the anger and move on.

Among the former, thousands took to the streets following the decision, accusing the judges of a soft sentencing that served the interests of the military council that has ruled Egypt since Mubarak was toppled and calling for an overhaul of the judicial system. "Ahmed Rifaat, you coward, how much did you sell the martyrs' blood for?" protesters chanted at Cairo’s Tahrir Square, referring to the panel’s lead judge.

Among the latter, in Mubarak’s hometown of Kafr El-Maselha and in other parts of the country, some Egyptians held up portraits of the former president and decried the sentence as exceedingly harsh. The verdict, carried live on Egyptian television, follows a 10-month trial that many Egyptians hoped would serve as a kind truth-and-reconciliation process for the three decades of Mubarak’s repressive rule. It focused mainly on the first days of the Egyptian revolution last year, when troops killed more than 800 protesters.

But the proceedings were marked mostly by disarray. Judges banned cameras after the second day of the trial and kept the key testimony secret. During today’s hourlong hearing, Mubarak lay on a gurney, clad in dark sunglasses and a white jogging suit. He did not react when the sentence was read. His two sons, Gamal and Alaa, stood in front of him to prevent cameras from filming their father. Following the decision, scuffles erupted in the courtroom between supporters and opponents of the defendants.

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[MuhammadDog]

No pyramid for this pharaoh.

 

[waltky]

Mubarak re-trial gets under way...

Mubarak appears in fresh trial
Sun, May 12, 2013 - DETENTION: The Egyptian ex-president has denied complicity in the murder of protesters. Earlier, a democracy activist was arrested at the airport

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak appeared in court yesterday to face a new trial for complicity in the murder of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising. The 85-year-old Mubarak, who was taken into court in a wheelchair dressed in white and wearing sunglasses, is on trial along with his former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, and six security chiefs. He also faces corruption charges with his two sons, Alaa and Gamal. All defendants pleaded “not guilty” to the charges leveled against them. Amid a raucous start to proceedings, lawyers for the victims’ families taunted Alaa and Gamal, as they stood in the dock, with chants of: “The people want the execution of the murderer.” However, the Mubaraks appeared unfazed by the chants, as the judge struggled to keep control of the courtroom with lawyers clambering to the front to speak. Mubarak was granted a retrial after his appeal against a life sentence was accepted due to procedural failings the first time round.

The retrial was meant to begin on April 13, but the judge in that instance recused himself in a hearing that lasted just seconds. At yesterday’s hearing, Judge Mahmoud al-Rashidi issued an emotional appeal for order, telling the court he understood their “frustration” with the process. Before ordering a 30-minuted recess, he confirmed that there would be new evidence presented in the case, which now includes 55,000 pages of documents. Outside the court, a handful of victims’ families and Mubarak supporters had turned up amid a heavy security presence. Sanaa Said, who lost her 20-year-old son during the uprising, said she would keep fighting for justice, though like many, she has become dispirited by the process. “I am clinging on to hope even though I think if the trial were real, we would have seen a result,” by now, she said.

In other news, Egypt’s prosecutor general on Friday ordered a prominent youth leader detained for four days pending an investigation into accusations he incited anti-government violence, a security official said, in the latest case of a pro-democracy activist being held over similar charges. The detention sparked a wave of anger among activists and the April 6 youth movement, which was at the forefront of the country’s 2011 uprising, called for nationwide protests, including one in front of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s house. The security official said Ahmed Maher, a leader of April 6, was arrested at the Cairo airport as he returned from a trip to the US. According to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, Maher is accused of “incitement” for actions at a March demonstration against the country’s interior minister, when protesters hurled underwear at the minister’s house to oppose a police crackdown on the activist group.

Maher was later taken to a heavily fortified prison in the Egyptian capital, the state-run MENA news agency said. Also late Friday, clashes broke out in downtown Cairo between rock-throwing protesters and security troops who fired tear gas at the demonstrators. The protesters were trying to bring down a cement wall blocking the entrance of a street leading up to the interior ministry building. Maher’s April 6 group was one of Morsi’s top allies during his presidential campaign last year against a rival who was a Mubarak-era official the group feared would restore the former regime. However, since Morsi became president in June last year, April 6, like the rest of the liberal opposition, has been increasingly frustrated with the new government’s practices and with what they see as the president serving his Islamist group’s agenda in trying to monopolize power in the country.

Mubarak appears in fresh trial - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

The wheels of justice grind slowly in Egypt...

Egyptians Wonder When, If, Mubarak Case Will End
May 12, 2013 — The latest postponement of the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has left some wondering if justice will ever be served.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is set to appear in court again June 8, as the case against him grinds slowly on. His retrial on charges he was complicit in the murder of protesters during the uprising against him has been postponed twice. Lawyers said they will be presenting new evidence, but the delays have raised questions of when, if ever, the case against the 85-year-old ex-leader will be resolved.

The court ordered Mubarak's first trial nearly two years ago. It began in August 2011. In June the next year, he was convicted of failing to stop the killings. Early this year, he was granted the now-postponed retrial. The delays have angered many: opponents are still bringing civil suits against him, while his supporters argue he should be freed during his appeal.

But there is also a growing sense of resignation. Crowds, once eager to see their former leader face justice, appear ever smaller as resolution seems farther away. Professor Said Sadek compares the Mubarak case to unsuccessful efforts against the late Chilean President Augusto Pinochet. "There was a realization that they should follow in Egypt what happened to Pinochet in Chile: a long trial, no solution, no final settlement until the dictator dies and they close the whole book and get rid of any trouble," he said.

That trouble, he believes, would be to the many holdovers in government from the Mubarak era, who Sadek argues would rather bury crimes committed not just during the revolution, but during his long rule. "I do not say Mubarak was torturing people by his own hands. He needed people. He needed officials, and if you go that way, you get a Who's Who in the Egyptian security establishment," he said. Yet just having the trial is a milestone. Of all the countries in which leaders were toppled during the Arab Spring, only Egypt has seen its former president in court.

Egyptians Wonder When, If, Mubarak Case Will End

 

[skye]

Thank you Obama for that! What a man! what a vision you have! Your Arab Spring is getting hotter all the time!

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Will Obama get a similar sentence for Benghazi?

 

[skye]

Will Obama get a similar sentence for Benghazi?

He should! God knows he should!

Instead he will be going to Hawaii .....

 

[waltky]

skye wrote: Thank you Obama for that! What a man! what a vision you have! Your Arab Spring is getting hotter all the time!

Actually the Arab Spring got started w/ our help...

... as a matter of fact they wanted to do it on their own...

... and for us to stay out of it, which for the most part we did...

... which is why Mubarak is no longer our strong man in Africa...

... and with Morsi an' the Muslim Botherhood in charge...

... we have no way of tryin' to keep a lid on things.