Mubarak's Trial and Errors
Transitional Justice in the New Egypt
Article Summary and Author Biography
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is expected to go on trial tomorrow for corruption and for ordering police to shoot unarmed protestors in January. By pushing the case forward, Egypt's interim government hopes to distance itself from the former regime and to boost its own legitimacy. But with convictions far from assured, it might have promised more than it can deliver.
STEVE NEGUS is a journalist and commentator specializing in Egypt and Iraq. He was Iraq correspondent for the Financial Times between 2004 and 2008, and worked for the Institute of War & Peace Reporting in 2003 and 2004.
According to Egyptian news reports former president Hosni Mubarak will stand trial on August 3 for crimes he allegedly committed before and during the revolution that shook the country last January. Whatever the outcome, by authorizing these hearings, and hearings for his associates, the 20 senior officers of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which seized power in February, have tried to distance themselves from Mubarak's fallen regime and buy themselves much-needed legitimacy. Still, the SCAF might have promised more than it will deliver.
After Mubarak's February ouster, the country's state prosecutor, presumably operating under SCAF instructions, wasted no time in putting together a raft of cases against the president, his sons, his ministers, and their business associates. Mubarak, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, and six senior ministry officials are accused of having ordered police to shoot unarmed demonstrators in January. Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal, and their alleged business partner, Hussein Salem, are all charged with illegally profiteering through a number of schemes, including selling natural gas to Israel at below-market prices. Meanwhile, several major figures in Mubarak's National Democratic Party, including Safwat al-Sherif, Egypt's former information minister, and Fathi Surour, the former speaker of parliament, face trial for having mustered a small army of petty criminals and other regime supporters to attack Tahrir protesters on February 2 and 3, what is now known as the "Battle of the Camel," since some were mounted on dromedaries...
