Doaa El-Bey on the decision that Mubarak will appear in court Newspapers debated the unprecedented trial of the former president Hosni Mubarak, his two sons and top officials, and last Friday's one-million-person march, together with calls for drafting a constitution before holding parliamentary elections. In the headlines: Al-Ahram : 'Mubarak's trial in Cairo'. Al-Wafd : 'Mubarak, El-Adli and Nazif paid the bill of cutting communications'. Nahdet Masr : 'No adjournment for the elections'. Al-Akhbar quoted the army as saying that the transitional period would end in time. Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted the army as stating that the elections will be held on schedule. The decision to refer Mubarak to criminal court was welcomed by many writers though they saw it as being late. Osama Heikal asked how long it would take to transfer Mubarak to the prison hospital because he is accused of crimes and should be detained like any other convict. Heikal wondered whether Mubarak should be exempted from punishment for killing protesters in Tahrir Square or should it be believed that he did not know about the shootings. "Mubarak should be given a normal and just trial. And that involves taking similar procedures to that taken with any criminal," Heikal wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. Mohamed Abdel-Hafez agreed with Heikal that there should be no difference between Mubarak and any other criminal. He wrote that there is no difference between Mubarak and the policeman who killed 32 protesters in front of his police station. But while the policeman was given a life sentence, he added, Mubarak is still in a five-star hospital. "Mubarak tried to fool us," Abdel-Hafez explained, "on the eve of the Battle of the Camel, 2 February) by saying that he would stay and die in Egypt. However, after Omar Suleiman's testimony that Mubarak was aware that police had shot and killed protesters, we were sure that he wanted to remain president or have his son become president." Abdel-Hafez ended his column in the official daily Al-Akhbar by calling on the authorities to stop treating Mubarak as a president and transfer him to Torah prison. Fear and concern preceded last Friday's protest. The positive outcome of the gathering, though, was encouraging. Makram Mohamed Ahmed wrote that he was not enthusiastic about the protest, preferring that youth recruit their huge communications abilities that would create a new reality on the ground. Nevertheless, Mohamed Ahmed regarded the protests as an important step, not because the 25 January revolution is in need of another revolution, and not because the protesters presented more demands to the army, but so as not to rush into parliamentary and presidential elections before the complete return of security. But the significance of Friday's protests, Mohamed Ahmed stated in the official daily Al-Ahram, is that although some parties like the Muslim Brotherhood declined to participate, the haughty and authoritative manner used by these parties should not scare us. The protests showed that the MB is not the only party that is strong and organised on the political arena. And estimates that the group would win more than half the seats in parliament are part of a psychological campaign rather than a fact on the ground. "Friday's organised protests proved that there is no point in secluding any party. The major trend in Egypt now is against the hegemony or seclusion of any party." Amr Hamzawy pointed to three dangerous matters: first, the impact of the political discourse of the Muslim Brotherhood which makes a distinction between those who differ with the group, those who work against the interests of Egypt and those who drive a wedge between the people and the army. Second, the inclination of some MB leaders to rely on the popularity of the group at the expense of national accord, and third, those who do not take the points of view of the group seriously. "The MB was mistaken not only to abstain from the participation in Friday's protests, but by claiming that the parties who attended were not patriotic. It could have rejected the demands of the protesters or reject a postponement of the parliamentary elections and opened the door for dialogue with the political parties that are calling for a delay," Hamzawy wrote in the independent political daily Al-Shorouk. The MB was wrong, he added, when it fell into the trap of polarisation which overwhelmed the political arena before the referendum on constitutional amendments. It was wrong when it calculated the importance of national influence by its ability to recruit and move people on the street. The group forgot that leftist and liberal powers have the power to influence public opinion. Finally, it was wrong when it withdrew confidence from youth groups that decided to take part in Friday protests. Hamzawy concluded by calling on the MB to review its position and try to find a way to return to national accord. "Let all the parties conduct a quiet dialogue on the timing of the parliamentary elections." Mohamed Amin wrote that the gist of Friday's protests is that Tahrir Square is the same without the MB. Although there were fears of violence during the protests, they dissipated by the end of the day. Amin added the protesters sent a message to a few recipients, "first to the MB that the square is just as full without you; to the thugs that we had waited for to come so that we could have thrashed you like we had done during the Battle of the Camel; and to the army, saying thank you, we did not need your protection, the protesters can protect the revolution by themselves." An Iranian spying case is likely to have an impact on Iranian-Egyptian relations which has recently witnessed some improvement. Columnist Mohamed Mustafa Sherdi wrote that the Iranian story should force us to reconsider our relationship with the government of Tehran. Egyptian officials, without doubt, must have found definite evidence against him, Sherdi added, or else they would not have arrested and deported him. "The official announcement that an Iranian diplomat was detained for spying indicated the case is clear, that the honeymoon that started with Iran is over for good," Sherdi wrote in his daily back-page column in Al-Wafd. However, he added, the details of the case would be gradually revealed in the Egyptian and international media and it will impact the accord that has started between the two states. It would also spark diplomatic anger in some countries that consider Iran a real threat to any stable Sunni state.
