The former Malaysian prime minister was the presiding judge in a mock trial of Bush, Blair and Sharon. Gamal Nkrumah covered the not so normal proceedings Last week, the mock trial of United States President George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his ailing Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon took place in a basement hall of Cairo's dilapidated Lawyers' Union headquarters building. Presiding over the tribunal was the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed. The evidence provided by the court enraged the spectators. Films were shown and testimonies delivered. The entire hall was emotionally charged. The charismatic Malaysian leader held the make-believe court spell-bound. "The court found the accused persons guilty of gross human rights violations." The panel of judges agreed that the leaders of the US, Britain and Israel were guilty of crimes committed against humanity and were pronounced guilty of bombing private houses, public buildings, hospitals and schools. They were also found guilty of obstructing supplies of food and medicine, destroying water and electricity supplies in Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere. They were found guilty of the arrest, detention and torture of innocent civilians. The judges said the leaders ought to be dumped into the "Hall of Infamy" for all eternity. Mahathir Mohamed's winning personality charmed his listeners and he did not mince his words. "They are accused of refusing to give legal redress to civilians," he explained. "These are crimes against peace and humanity. They must be brought to book." However, Mahathir conceded that the mock trial had no authority to enforce the verdict. "This court has no power to make you face prosecution and have you succumb to the prescribed sentence," he said. "However, at least the mock trial provides a forum by which the international community would know how much suffering the occupation and armed aggression of the occupiers inflicted on the civilian populations," Mahathir told Al-Ahram Weekly at the close of the trial. "At least this is an opportunity for people in this part of the world to vent their frustration and air their grievances," he added. "People the world over are angry at the double standards of the US and are determined to express their outrage at the manner in which the civilian population of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan were treated," Mahathir said. He agreed with most participants at the mock trial that the crimes committed against humanity by the three leaders must not be forgotten or belittled. Sameh Ashour, the head of the Arab Lawyers Union, concurred. He said that the entire Arab and the Muslim worlds were incensed by the brutal way in which Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghans were treated under occupation. "The gross violations of the civilian population in these occupied countries are despicable," he said. British MP George Galloway for his constituency Bethnal Green was invited to give evidence at the mock trial. Galloway was detained at Cairo International Airport on the grounds that he constituted a threat to "Egyptian national security," the British MP explained upon his release from a cell he was kept in overnight. Galloway was at first left bereft of food and drink at the VIP lounge of Cairo Airport and then whisked away to a detention centre where he shared a cramped space with some 35 mostly black African deportees. After a phone call his credit ran out, but not before the British Embassy in Cairo was notified and Galloway was visited by some of the organisers of the mock trial and by MP Mustafa El-Fiqi, head of the foreign relations committee of the People's Assembly. After the intervention of the British Embassy in Cairo and top-level Egyptian officials, Galloway was promptly released, but it was too late for him to take part in the mock tribunal. The British MP maintains that he received a phone call from President Hosni Mubarak who "apologised on behalf of the Egyptian people". According to Galloway, President Mubarak told him that he was a "widely respected freedom fighter and friend of the Arabs." Galloway, who is also the leader of the leftist Respect Party, said that "[Mubarak's phone call] was a most gracious apology which I accepted whole- heartedly." He said he would be visiting Egypt in the future and that once one drinks from the waters of the River Nile, one is always bound to return to "this beautiful country. "I consider the matter now closed."
