Mubarak’s life term tossed

Egypt orders retrial for ex-leader, aide, acquitted police

Egyptian supporters of ousted former President Hosni Mubarak celebrate after an appeal of Mubarak’s life sentence was granted by a court in Cairo on Sunday.
Egyptian supporters of ousted former President Hosni Mubarak celebrate after an appeal of Mubarak’s life sentence was granted by a court in Cairo on Sunday.

— An Egyptian court Sunday ordered a retrial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, granting an appeal of the former autocrat’s life sentence for failing to prevent the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his rule.

Sunday’s court ruling also overturned convictions for Mubarak’s former interior minister, Habib el-Adly. Judge Ahmed Abdel-Rahman also ordered six security officials retried after they had been acquitted by the court that sentenced Mubarak and el-Adly in June.

The decision comes two weeks before the second anniversary of the start of the 2011 revolution.

None of the defendants will go free, because of other cases that are pending against them. The ailing 84-year-old Mubarak is currently being held in a military hospital.

Many Egyptians have complained that the ousted president’s earlier trial was deeply flawed, marred by political loyalties within the court and an inept prosecution. Both the defense and the prosecution had appealed the sentences.

The verdict will put pressure on President Mohamed Morsi to show he’s following through on promises to hold the former regime accountable, said Mohamed Adel, co-founder of the April 6 group, which helped to spearhead the protests that marked the revolt. Egypt has been struggling to revive its economy and secure a measure of political stability amid tensions between secularists and Morsi’s Islamist government.

“The ruling will spark popular anger and help mobilize people for mass protests” on the anniversary of the uprising, Adel said. “When Morsi promised retrials of former regime figures, we thought he meant putting more figures on trial and achieving justice.”

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, called on the attorney general’s office in November to open new investigations and trials for Mubarak, el-Adly and other ex-regime officials whose sentencing or acquittals drew public anger.

Morsi has come under mounting criticism by an opposition of secularists, minority Christians and youth activists who claim he is more intent on advancing the Muslim Brotherhood’s goals and securing its power than addressing Egypt’s challenges. They’ve vowed to hold protests on the second anniversary of the uprising to overturn a constitution approved last month in a referendum.

Activists and legal experts said retrials present an important opportunity to examine broader evidence that they said was neglected during last year’s trial by a prosecution that was headed by a Mubarak appointee.

An Egyptian fact-finding mission ordered by Morsi concluded this month that Mubarak had watched the uprising unfold on a live TV feed from his palace. Mubarak’s defense lawyers had argued the ex-president did not know of the killings or realize the extent of the street protests.

The mission’s report also implicates the military and security officials in the protesters’ deaths.

Some said the new evidence could lead to the deposed leader being tried and convicted of ordering the crackdown on the protesters, not just failing to prevent it.

But others complained that a retrial could open the door to even lighter sentencing for Mubarak and his cronies.

“This is an attempt to escape punishment because the general prosecution did not spend enough effort examining evidence,” said Ahmed Ezzat, a lawyer with the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, an Egyptian legal nongovernmental organization. “It means the criminal court’s verdict against Mubarak and el-Adly was deficient,” he said.

Faisal el-Antieby, head of one of Mubarak’s defense teams, said that during the new trial the defense will be allowed to present new evidence in support of Mubarak while the prosecution must rely on evidence already submitted.

If convicted again, Mubarak could face a life sentence or have it reduced. He could also be acquitted. Under Egyptian law, a defendant cannot face a harsher sentence in a retrial, meaning the former leader cannot face the death penalty.

A small crowd of Mubarak loyalists broke into applause after the ruling was announced. Holding portraits of the former president aloft, they chanted “Long live justice!” Another jubilant crowd later gathered outside the Nile-side Cairo hospital where Mubarak is being held, handing out candy to pedestrians and motorists.

Some of Mubarak’s backers headed to the military hospital where he is currently being held to offer their congratulations, the Ahram Gate news website reported.

The court on Sunday also ordered Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal, and a businessman retried in connection with a case dealing with the export of natural gas to Israel.All four had been acquitted in the case and the prosecution had appealed the verdict.

No date has been set for the retrials, but they could happen at a delicate time for the president, with preparations for parliamentary elections likely to be announced next month. The Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, is seeking to repeat its dominance in the earlier elections after Mubarak’s ouster.

Morsi has tried to reassure Egyptians repeatedly that he is a president for “all,” and he has appointed a new prosecutor general in place of the one under Mubarak. Also, under the new constitution that was passed last month, almost half the justices on the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court were sidelined. The judges had been Mubarak appointees as well.

“There’s a political will to achieve justice, and Morsi has succeeded in building the right environment for the judiciary to ensure justice is fully served,” said Ahmed Aref, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman. “We don’t want a president who directly interferes in the judiciary. All he can do is build a healthy and stable environment that allows judges to do their duty.”

The spokesman said the group would wait and see the results of the trial before making specific comments on the case.

“What really matters is whether the result satisfies the demands of the revolution and ensures justice is met,” Aref said.

Information for this article was contributed by Abigail Hauslohner and Ingy Hassieb of The Washington Post; by Hamza Hendawi of The Associated Press; and by Abdel Latif Wahba, Tarek El-Tablawy, Nadine Marroushi and Ahmed Khalilelsayed of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/14/2013

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