Related: Egyptian Exceptions
"Egypt court overturns last Mubarak conviction. Will he walk?" by Sarah el Deeb, Associated Press January 14, 2015
CAIRO — An appeals court overturned the last remaining conviction against Egypt’s deposed leader Hosni Mubarak Tuesday and ordered his retrial on corruption charges, opening the door for his possible release.
The ruling, days before the fourth anniversary of the start of the 2011 anti-Mubarak uprising, pointed to how far Egypt has moved away from its revolutionary fervor to ‘‘bring down the regime.’’ The rise to power of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who has vowed stability after four years of turmoil and has taken a tough line against dissent, has encouraged Mubarak supporters and upended the depiction of the revolution in the media, where activists are most often cast as troublemakers backed by foreign agents.
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Meanwhile, hundreds of the young activists and pro-change leaders from 2011 are languishing in prison....
The next steps for Mubarak are difficult to predict. Sissi could keep Mubarak and his two sons in a state of legal limbo in which the ousted leader is neither outright freed or firmly convicted and punished — thus avoiding alienating either Mubarak’s supporters or opponents.
Sissi, the former head of the military, has distanced himself from Mubarak. After the court ruling dropping charges against Mubarak in November, Sissi lashed out at the former president in a private meeting that was leaked by reporters. He said that during his nearly 30 year rule, Mubarak ‘‘wrecked the nation’’ and that it would need another 30 years to repair....
Related:
"Space for dissent has also shrunk, with restrictive laws for assembly and public gatherings. Old faces from the Mubarak era have returned to the political scene, backed by powerful business networks, while youth groups that spearheaded the uprising against Mubarak have been decimated amid a wider crackdown on dissent — the final step in a political roadmap put in place by the military after its ouster of the country’s first democratically elected president."
A Mubarak release could revitalize Sissi’s Islamist opposition, which has been nearly crushed by a security crackdown and is looking for a way to boost its protests and appeal to other disgruntled groups. Ahead of parliamentary elections set to start in March, the government might be reluctant to raise anger.
Nasser Amin, a judicial reform activist on the National Human Rights council, believes Sissi is trying to balance between lingering public sentiment against Mubarak and his regime and Mubarak loyalists who still pack much of the bureaucracy, the judiciary, and the business community.
There have been public grumblings that the judiciary is cutting corners in its heavy and quick prosecutions of Islamists, journalists, and dissenters.
Negad Borai, an appeals lawyer who takes on activists’ and journalists’ cases, disagreed. He said Sissi’s government seems encouraged by the limited public outcry after the charges on killing protesters were thrown out. Releasing Mubarak would be a way for Sissi to prove his rule is ‘‘strong and able and can control any form of instability,’’ Borai said.
He said the initial cases against Mubarak were shoddily prosecuted and it is easy to understand why judges would throw out the verdicts.
The corruption case — dubbed by the media as the ‘‘presidential palaces’’ affair — concerns charges that Mubarak and his two sons embezzled millions of dollars’ worth of state funds over the course of a decade. The funds were meant to pay for renovating and maintaining presidential palaces but were allegedly spent on upgrading the family’s residences.
Mubarak was sentenced to three years, his sons to four. They were also fined the equivalent of $2.9 million and ordered to reimburse $17.6 million to the state treasury.
Procedurally, Mubarak could go free because he exhausted his period of preventive detention....
If he is freed from official custody, Mubarak’s actual location probably will not change. Throughout his various trials, Mubarak has been detained in a Cairo military hospital for poor health.
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Related: 2 sons of Egypt’s Mubarak freed from prison
Because they were gay?
"Egypt acquits 26 men in trial over police raid on gays" by Maggie MichaelAssociated Press January 13, 2015
CAIRO — Monday’s ruling was made amid Egypt’s ongoing crackdown on the gay community and on atheists. The crackdown parallels a wider campaign against all forms of dissent and diversity in a country gripped by rising nationalism and a militant insurgency.
One of the defendants, who would not give his name to protect his privacy, as he broke into tears after the verdict.
The raid in an old downtown Cairo district had caused an uproar among activists and rights groups.
Activists, defendants, and their families were doubly outraged by the deep involvement in the case of Egyptian TV presenter Mona al-Iraqi, who claimed she actually triggered the raid by tipping off the police about alleged gay activity in the bathhouse — which she described as a ‘‘den of mass perversion spreading AIDS in Egypt.’’
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Related: Gay Wedding in Egypt
Also see:
Egypt orders retrial for jailed Al-Jazeera journalists
Family of Al-Jazeera journalist requests Egypt deportation
Egypt court convicts doctor in genital mutilation case
No laughing matter there.
"15 killed as protesters, police clash across Egypt" by Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press January 26, 2015
CAIRO — Antigovernment protesters fought street battles with police in Cairo and other cities Sunday, the fourth anniversary of the country’s 2011 uprising, as clashes left at least 15 people dead and dozens injured.
Another two people died when an explosive device they were planting under a high-voltage tower in the Nile Delta exploded prematurely, according to security officials.
Most of the deaths took place in Cairo’s eastern Matariyah district — an Islamist stronghold where police used tear gas and birdshot to disperse supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group armed with firebombs and rocks.
At least nine protesters and one police conscript were killed in the clashes there, the officials said.
Two other protesters and two police officers were killed elsewhere in Cairo on Sunday and one in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The violence underscored the continued turmoil roiling the Arab world’s most populous nation four years after the 18-day uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Although small and scattered, Sunday’s violence probably will impact Egypt’s image as it prepares to host an international donors’ conference in March and in which President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government has high hopes for the ailing economy.
It also casts a light on the multitude of challenges faced by Sissi, who since taking office in June has been struggling to revive the economy, battle an Islamist insurgency, and deal with dissent by both Islamists loyal to Mohammed Morsi — the elected president he ousted in 2013 — and the secular and liberal groups behind the 2011 uprising.
Both camps are targeted in crackdowns by Sissi’s government but show no sign of being able to overcome mutual distrust and join forces.
A career army officer, Sissi says his priorities are fixing the economy and battling the insurgency. He has resisted growing calls for reform, while influential media loyal to him have begun regularly maligning the 2011 revolution and its activists.
The Health Ministry said 37 people were injured in clashes Sunday and the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, said that a total of 134 protesters were arrested nationwide.
By early evening, debris covered the site of the Matariyah clashes and a cloud of tear gas hung over the area. Several cars were damaged, including one that was on fire.
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Related: Simultaneous attacks in Egypt's Sinai kill 25
They indicate a previously unseen level of coordination, and that screams Mossad.
Oh, for the days when a real king is restored to the throne.
