CAIRO: Lawyer Farid El-Deeb representing ousted president Hosni Mubarak claimed in a televised interview Monday that his client was the first to support the January 25 Revolution. “The revolution [erupting] on Jan. 25 is definitely different from what happened on Jan. 28. The [Jan. 25] one was a rightful revolution where the youth revolted … in order to express their views. The first to support them was Hosni Mubarak,” El-Deeb told TV host Moataz El-Demerdash. El-Deeb said during the interview aired as part of the first episode of “Masr El-Gedeeda” talk show broadcast on Al-Hayat 2 channel that Mubarak's speeches proved his argument. On Jan. 28, dubbed the “Friday of Rage,” Mubarak gave a speech broadcast on state TV in which he described the protests as “an expression of the people's legitimate aspirations.” Hours earlier, anti-riot police had dealt violently with protesters, leading to clashes between the two sides that forced security forces to eventually step back. The police forces were later ordered to retreat completely, before the army took over the streets of Egypt and a curfew was imposed on Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, the governorates witnessing most of the action. El-Deeb declined to comment on any cases already overseen by the judiciary, criticizing the way the media has been tackling the issue. He said Mubarak was “sad” because of what the lawyer described as “unfair” campaign that is both “baseless” and ignores Mubarak's good aspects. “We respect the judiciary. But the defamation [by media] makes him sad,” he said. On April 19, the official fact-finding said at least 846 were killed and 6,467 injured during the uprising. Mubarak is scheduled to stand trial before a criminal court on Aug. 3 on charges of the premeditated murder of peaceful protesters as well as the injury of others during the Jan. 25 protests and the following days. Former interior minister Habib El-Adly and dozens of police officers across Egypt, including high ranks, are already standing trial over similar charges. El-Deeb refuted the health ministry reports about Mubarak, which indicated that his medical condition was stable, arguing the ex-president has cancer. “The [earlier] medical tests Mubarak underwent in December 2009 were conducted through the presidency and the international medical center [of the armed forces] not the ministry,” El-Deeb said. “The president was diagnosed in January 2010 with suspected malignant tumors under the major bile duct. He traveled to Germany…where the [primary] diagnosis was confirmed,” El-Deeb said, presenting medical reports to prove his claims. Even though El-Deeb was quoted by local and international media as saying Mubarak was not fit for trial for suffering from malignant tumors and that a delegation of German doctors examined him recently, he denied these statements during the interview. The official Middle East News Agency (MENA) cited Tuesday Minister of Health Ashraf Hatem denying these accounts as well. Hatem said the Prosecutor General is the only official entitled to allow any doctors to examine Mubarak, held in custody since April at Sharm El-Sheikh International Hospital. El-Deeb said his client should have followed up every three months via biopsy of samples extracted from the parts where the tumors were surgically removed. “The latest medical report prepared by a six-member committee of armed forces physicians and professors of medicine recommended a follow up…not denying the possibility of a relapse,” he added. El-Deeb added that he officially called on the Prosecutor General to summon the German surgeon to evaluate Mubarak's case about one year after the surgery. He said Mubarak slips into a coma for extended periods each day. In March 2010, Mubarak reportedly underwent a surgery for the removal of his gall bladder and a growth on his small intestine. At that time, the presidency, his German doctors and the state media said he had no cancer. El-Deeb denied towards the end of the interview that he presented any request to hold Mubarak's trial at the hospital in Sharm El-Sheikh. Rumors about Mubarak's deteriorating health were earlier liable to ongoing speculations. On Dec. 28, 2008, outspoken editor of independent El-Dostour newspaper Ibrahim Eissa was sentenced to two months in prison for writing an editorial followed by a number of articles about the medical condition of Mubarak. The articles in question suggested that Mubarak's health had deteriorated. According to Amnesty International, Eissa was charged with publishing information considered by the authorities to be "damaging to the public interest and Egypt's national stability." Mubarak granted Eissa an amnesty one day later. El-Deeb claimed Mubarak was not behind the "Battle of the Camel", deducting it was intended to frame his client in order to have a negative impact on the influential speech the former president gave a day earlier. Less than a day after Mubarak gave a speech on Feb. 1 announcing he had no prior intention to run for president again, thugs ridding camels and horses attacked anti-regime protesters in Tahrir square. Reported live on numerous satellite news channels, the attack lasted for about 20 hours. No army forces deployed on the streets intervened to protect the demonstrators, remaining neutral most of the time. Some officers reportedly attempted to protect protesters on individual basis. Several senior members of the then ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) are currently facing charges of orchestrating the assault. El-Deeb, meanwhile, denied earlier speculations about the inheritance of power scenario in Egypt. Since Gamal Mubarak first appeared on the political scene in 2000, several opposition groups and political forces predicted he was being prepared to succeed his father. The rejection of this scenario was one of the driving forces behind the mass protests breaking out in Egypt since 2004 as well as the revolution that toppled Mubarak on Feb. 11.
