With the trial of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak scheduled to begin next week, there is still little sign of how and where it will be held, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Just six days separate Egypt from the day on which the trial of deposed former president Hosni Mubarak is scheduled to begin. On 3 August, Mubarak, his two sons Alaa and Gamal and business associate Hussein Salem, are due to stand trial before Cairo's Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square during the 25 January Revolution and illegally profiteering from the sale of Egypt's natural gas to Israel. Cairo's Criminal Court also ordered on 25 July that former interior minister Habib El-Adli and six senior police officers should also stand trial alongside Mubarak on the grounds that all the men are accused of ordering the killing of pro-democracy protesters during the 18-day revolution, a charge which carries the death penalty. Although the delay is now very short, there has so far been no final say about where Mubarak's trial will be held. Moreover, the young political activists who have been organising a sit-in in Tahrir Square since 8 July still have doubts that the trial will in fact go ahead, since Mubarak has been held in Sharm El-Sheikh Hospital since 12 April, with conflicting reports emerging about his health. While Mubarak's lawyer Farid El-Deeb insists that the former president's health is deteriorating and that he is suffering from low blood pressure, heart problems and loss of consciousness, Ministry of Health officials say that Mubarak's health is stable "and that from time to time he just suffers from a loss of consciousness and a severe state of psychological depression." Officials are also doing their best to dispel public doubts about whether Mubarak's trial will take place in order to contain the anger of the families of protesters shot dead during the 25 January Revolution. Minister of Interior Mansour Eissawi has said that "all options are open," and whether Mubarak's trial will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh or in Cairo, "the ministry is ready to safeguard it against any violent acts." Eissawi said that he expected "more than 50,000 people to come to the court to follow the trial of Mubarak," adding that "we are coordinating with the judges and the Ministry of Justice in order to select the most favourable place in safety terms for Mubarak's trial." Chief judge El-Sayed Abdel-Aziz Omar, chair of Cairo's Appeals Court, said that "we are busy looking for a court room big and secure enough to accommodate the trial of Mubarak and his two sons." An informed security source said that "Mubarak's trial will most probably be held in Sharm El-Sheikh because this is much safer than Cairo." He added that "Mubarak's two sons, Alaa and Gamal, together with El-Adli, will be flown to Sharm El-Sheikh by military helicopter to join the trial of their father." Businessman Hussein Salem, arrested in Spain last month, will be tried in absentia. A court complex in Sharm El-Sheikh has been renovated over recent days, and a special court room has been built. Joining forces with Eissawi and security sources, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said that the government was committed to responding to the demands of the Tahrir Square activists and that the trial would be broadcast live on state television. Newly-appointed Minister of Information Osama Heikal also stressed that Mubarak's trial would be held in public and broadcast live on state TV. Egyptians saw the committal for trial of Mubarak's feared interior minister El-Adli broadcast live on state television on 25 July. Senior officials at the Sharm El-Sheikh Hospital insist that "reports that Mubarak's health is so bad that he cannot appear in court are entirely unfounded. The appearance of Mubarak in court will depend on his health condition on the day before the trial and the day of trial itself. Mubarak's health is generally stable." However, a senior source at the Sharm El-Sheikh Hospital said on Tuesday that "Mubarak went on hunger strike and he just takes liquids and juice." Reports about Mubarak's health had previously gone so far as to say that he had died, triggering clashes on Monday night in Tahrir Square, with some protesters insisting that "the man staying at Sharm El-Sheikh Hospital is not Hosni Mubarak." Other state officials have rejected Sharm El-Sheikh as the stage for Mubarak's trial. Minister of Tourism Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour said that "organising Mubarak's trial at Sharm El-Sheikh will be disastrous to Egypt's first Red Sea tourist resort." "Sharm El-Sheikh has begun to recover the pre-25 January Revolution's high tourist traffic flow, and if Mubarak's trial is held there, the city will face a setback," Abdel-Nour said. Some political activists, such as former reformist judge Mahmoud El-Khodeiri, said they were planning to visit Sharm El-Sheikh to follow the trial of Mubarak in person. Doubts about Mubarak's trial have contributed to the atmosphere of tension in Cairo and other cities over recent days. If the trial of the 83-year-old ousted president does not go ahead on schedule, or if Mubarak does not appear in public in the court, there could be an outburst of anger across Egypt, shocking even opposition activists, the youth movements of the 25 January Revolution and the families of those who lost their lives in the revolution. There were clashes in Cairo on 23 July as a march to the headquarters of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) pressing for speeding up the public trial of Mubarak was organised. Meanwhile, judge Omar said that "Mubarak is required by law to appear at the court's first hearing and stand in a metal cage." "If Mubarak is too sick to appear in person before the court, his lawyer should provide the necessary medical documents supporting this," Omar said, adding that "in this case it will be left to the court's senior judge, Ahmed Refaat, to decide whether or not to accept the documents or to ask Mubarak to appear under special medical care." Fathi Ragab, a senior lawyer and former member of the dissolved Shura Council's legislative committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "regardless of the issue of whether Mubarak will appear in person before the court or not, the first hearing is just procedural." "Mubarak and other defendants will be required to come to the court to listen to the list of charges levelled against them," Ragab said, adding that "after that lawyers will be allowed to ask the court for an adjournment so they can revise the documents." Ragab added that "as Mubarak's trial will be held during the holy month of Ramadan, it would be expected to postpone it to the month of September, or after Ramadan and the Eid Al-Fitr holidays." Cairo's Criminal Court decided on 26 July that the trial of senior officials from Mubarak's former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), including former parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour and Shura Council chair Safwat El-Sherif, should be postponed to 11 September, after Ramadan. "The same could be true in Mubarak's case," Ragab said. Mubarak's trial is expected to be closely followed in all other Arab countries, in spite of the fact that it may be embarrassing to the Arab world's autocrats. There have been rumours that Saudi Arabia has been exerting pressure to prevent the public trial of Mubarak, fearing that it might set a precedent for people in other Arab countries. Some press reports alleged on Monday that Mubarak had left for Saudi Arabia three times in February and March this year to receive medical treatment. Unlike the former president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, who was tried after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, if Mubarak is put on trial it will be the first time an Arab ruler has been put on trial following a popular revolution.
