Jew World Order

Also convicted alongside him was Habib al-Adly, the former interior minister
and a loyal Mubarak ally, who had been in charge of the nation’s internal
security as police cracked down on demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square,
and in town and cities across Egypt, during a week of intense violence at
the end of January last year.

But Mubarak was cleared of corruption charges, along with two sons Alaa and
Gamal, who are said to have amassed a £215 million fortune during their
father’s 30 years in power, and who still face a separate trial for insider
trading.

To the fury of the crowd waiting outside the courtroom – in a former police
barracks north of Cairo, protected by a phalanx of riot police – six other
security officials and senior policemen were acquitted of the charges
against them, and so was a property developer friend of the family accused
of offering them bribes.

For the mothers, fathers and brothers and sisters of slain protesters gathered
outside, it was a moment of intense emotion when Mubarak was sentenced to
life in prison — although most had wanted him hanged.

“Thank God there was justice for the people,” said a middle-aged man on his
knees in the dust, tears rolling down his face and a crumpled home-made
poster bearing a photograph of his murdered son in his lap. Fireworks were
let off and women began to ululate in celebration.

Several men jerked home-made nooses around their own necks to illustrate what
they really wanted to happen to the fallen president.

But then the crowd grasped that Mubarak’s henchmen, those they hold directly
responsible for killing their friends and relatives during those terrible
days in January 2011, were not going to prison. The mood suddenly changed.

A young woman wailed uncontrollably. She screamed at the riot police, who had
minutes earlier been eating ice cream in the hot sunshine – and were soon
firing stun grenades to help ward off the angry crowd.

Inside the court, the former president – wearing dark glasses – showed little
emotion as Judge Ahmed Refaat described the popular protest that had been
crushed by Mubarak’s regime.

“It was a ray of white, bright hope for the great people of Egypt, dreaming of
a better future,” he said. “The people woke up from a nightmare.”

His voice cracking with emotion, he said: “The protesters went out only
calling for justice, freedom and democracy.”

As the judge read out the verdict on behalf of the panel of three judges,
Mubarak listened impassively, propped up on a hospital trolley inside the
bars and mesh of the metal cage where all the accused were held during court
proceedings.

His sons looked dismayed as the verdicts were read out, even though they were
acquitted. But many of the lawyers and spectators in the courtroom erupted
with fury at the acquittal of most of those on trial.

The judge said the prosecution’s case lacked concrete and material evidence
and had failed to prove that the protesters were killed by the police.
Because those who pulled the trigger have not been arrested, he added, he
could not convict any of the top police officers of complicity in the
killings.

Relatives shouted that the judiciary was not independent.

“The people want to liberate the judiciary,” spectators cried. “Mubarak left
the palace, but his dogs are still in power.”

Some started chanting and unfurled banners which read “God’s verdict is
execution”.

Ramadan Ahmed, whose son was killed on Jan 28 last year, said: “Justice was
not served. This is a sham.”

Many Egyptians are convinced that the army, which still runs the government
and may prove reluctant to give up power even when the current presidential
election has been completed, has controlled the trial behind the scenes.
They fear that Mubarak’s sentence will soon be reduced, since his lawyers
announced their intention to appeal.

In particular, there was astonishment at the acquittal of the police chiefs
who were in control during the week of most intense bloodshed.

Long before the verdict it had been clear to many that instead of justice
being seeing to be done, the trial was deeply flawed.

As it got going in August, euphoria quickly turned to dismay amid scenes of
utter chaos.

Hundreds of lawyers claiming to represent Mr Mubarak’s victims argued
furiously in the courtroom and even wrestled and hit each other as they
struggled to address the panel of three judges and give long, grandstanding
speeches. One claimed the real president had died in 2004 and insisted that
the defendant was an impostor who should be subjected to a DNA test.

After that pantomime there were delays, legal wrangles and procedural
hold-ups. But what really eroded faith in the trial was the weakness of the
prosecution case that was supposed to nail the former president.

What was not in doubt was the scale of the bloodshed between January 25 — 31,
at the height of the Arab Spring.

In side streets of Cairo, villages in the delta, and in the cities of
Alexandria and Suez, hundreds of people were killed and far more injured.
Paid thugs beat and kidnapped protesters, vehicles were driven into crowds
at high speed to kill and maim, and snipers shot down protesters, then shot
those who went to their aid.

Nearly all Egyptians, and diplomats based in Cairo, believed the violence was
ordered to cow the protest movement, and to show the anarchy that the
government could unleash when challenged.

On January 31, after intense pressure from Egypt’s vital ally the United
States and growing worldwide revulsion, the violence ended as abruptly as it
had begun. The police vanished from the streets, and the army arrived, to be
greeted as the saviours of the people – although now they are in power they
are no longer seen like that.

To most Egyptians, it was pretty clear who had been responsible, but
prosecutors could only sketch out a circumstantial case against Mr Mubarak.

Some of the biggest names from the old regime, such as Field Marshal Hussein
Tantawi and Omar Soliman, the former vice-president, told the court what had
happened inside the highest circles during those extraordinary 18 days.

None gave evidence that then-President Mubarak had ordered the crackdown or
directed his brutal security forces to kill or attack protesters.

Al-Adly, interior minister at the time, who was also sentenced to life
imprisonment, told the court that unknown terrorists had sneaked into the
country to shoot down civilians, at the behest of foreign powers.

Mubarak’s own celebrity lawyer Farid el-Deeb, known for flamboyantly smoking
cigars during recess periods, said that his client “was clean and could say
no wrong” and was the victim of “slander and libel”.

The uncomfortable fact, as prosecutors gave closing speeches in February and
demanded the death penalty, was that there was no smoking gun.

Instead of presenting hard evidence they could only argue weakly that, as
president, Mubarak must have known what was going on – and that the killings
were so extensive and widely reported that he could have stopped them sooner
had he wished.

Part of the problem with that argument was that Mubarak, who at the time of
the protests was aged 82 and suffering suspected cancer and heart problems,
didn’t really look as if he was in control of Egypt, or perhaps even his own
faculties. He relied heavily on his sons and various cronies, and looked
desperately out of touch throughout the crisis.

Under house arrest in one of his luxurious homes, and then in Cairo’s
International Medical Centre where he was closely guarded, he was depressed,
endlessly watching taped football matches. Sometimes he would go for a walk
in the hospital’s garden, striking a lonely figure. He will surely miss such
luxuries in prison.

It was a miserable ending for a man who was genuinely loved by many of his
people right up to the moment on Feb 11 last year when he finally stepped
down.

The former president’s sons, who sometimes appeared in court carrying copies
of the Koran and tried to stand in front of their father to shield him from
television cameras, were accused of accepting bribes from developers. When
their father ran Egypt as the family fiefdom they controlled much of the
nation’s business.

The corruption charges faced by Mubarak senior were for accepting a bribe from
a developer who wanted to build a golf course in the Red Sea resort town of
Sharm el-Sheikh, and for a corrupt deal to sell gas to Israel for prices
lower than the international market rate.

Gamal, the younger and reputedly greedier son, had been the elderly Mubarak’s
heir-apparent, and many believe he was the real power behind his aged
father’s throne during the president’s years of decline.

Hundreds more policemen murdered and tortured for the regime during 30 years,
and crooked officials stole without restraint. Many of them are still in
their jobs. There are no plans yet to put them on trial.