In a long interview with Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper, former president Mubarak's attorney Farid El Deeb defended both the former president and his son Gamal, saying that Gamal Mubarak did not seek the Egyptian presidency. El Deeb claimed that plans for succession were actually rumors spread by those surrounding Mubarak and his son in order to benefit from them. The renowned and controversial attorney is currently defending the former president's family along former minister of interior Habib El Adly and former chief of presidential staff Zakaria Azami. El Deeb claimed that Mubarak supported the demands of the revolutionaries from day one and that it was not these demands that eventually ousted the president. El Deeb insists that Habib El Adly did not order the shooting of the protesters with live ammunition during the revolution, blaming stolen weapons used to kill Tahrir Square protesters and police forces on foreign elements. He specifically refers to elements from Hezbollah, based on former vice president Omar Soliman's alleged statements. El Deeb also claimed in the interview that El Adly ordered Major General Ahmed Ramzy, the head of the central security forces not to use live ammunition at the square and that Ramzy presented the order statement that was issued to the investigation authority. The former president is depressed according to El Deeb, who claims that his health is deteriorating at Sharm El Sheikh Hospital because of cancer. Farid El Deeb stated that he was happy for the arrest of Mubarak's friend Hussein Salem in Spain, supposing investigations with Salem will expose the lies about Mubarak's fortune. El Deeb claimed in previous interviews that Mubarak had only LE6 million in his bank account.
