Egypt's ruling military council has refuted charges that it plans to keep ousted former president Hosni Mubarak from standing trial in Cairo, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Egypt's ruling Higher Council of the Armed Forces (HCAF) has been under attack recently on charges that it is prevaricating over arrangements for the trial of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak, something that members of the council have consistently denied. According to major-general Hassan El-Riwini, a member of the HCAF, the "HCAF never gave ousted president Hosni Mubarak assurances that he would not be tried were he to decide to cede power and relinquish office as president of the republic." In a television interview on 13 June, El-Riwini also said that "we never issued assurances that Mubarak would not be moved from Sharm El-Sheikh Hospital, where he has been held for medical treatment since 13 April, to the hospital of the Tora prison in southern Cairo." In the words of El-Riwini, "it is the prosecutor-general who is solely empowered with the final say about the trial of Mubarak and whether he should be transferred to Cairo." El-Riwini's comments came in response to growing suspicions in the local media and among youth movements associated with the country's 25 January Revolution that some oil- rich Arab Gulf countries were exerting pressure on the HCAF to push the judicial authorities into keeping Mubarak in Sharm El-Sheikh and not transfer him to Cairo for trial. Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud ordered two weeks ago that court hearings on the trial of Mubarak, his two sons Alaa and Gamal and business associate Hussein Salem should begin on 3 August. However, judicial sources thus far have not given a final say about whether Mubarak will be tried before the criminal court in Cairo, or whether he will be kept in Sharm El-Sheikh for health reasons. Many believe that reports about Mubarak's health have been deliberately fabricated. "Some reports allege that Mubarak is in very bad health and that he cannot even go to the bathroom without assistance," said Nasser Abdel-Hamid, a member of the Coalition of Youth of 25 January. However, "other reports stress that Mubarak is in good health and that he only suffers from psychological depression. I think we have been kept in the dark about Mubarak's health as a way to avoid the ousted president having a public trial." Mubarak, his two sons and Salem face charges of ordering the killing of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tahrir Square during the 25 January Revolution, abusing power and embezzling public funds, and taking illegal profits from the sale of Egyptian natural gas to Israel. Minister of Justice Mohamed Abdel-Aziz El-Guindi argued on 12 June that "if found guilty of issuing direct orders to kill peaceful protesters, Mubarak could face the death penalty." In El-Guindi's words, "I think life imprisonment would be a very possible punishment for Mubarak, but he could face the death penalty if convicted of ordering the killing of protesters." El-Guindi refuted reports alleging that he was in consultation with Ahmed Refaat, chairman of the North Cairo Court that will be in charge of prosecuting Mubarak. El-Guindi did not give further details of Mubarak's health, dismissing reports that "some high-profile figures currently held in prison pending investigation on corruption charges are receiving privileged treatment." "I want to emphasise that all those in prison receive equal treatment, regardless of whether they are high-profile or ordinary people," El-Guindi said. Meanwhile, it has been disclosed that as many as 16 high-profile figures from the former regime have testified against Mubarak, with Omar Suleiman, the former vice-president and chief of intelligence, at the top of the list. According to Suleiman's testimony, "the general intelligence agency submitted reports to Mubarak some days ahead of 25 January, warning that a state of anger and frustration had swept the country because of the rigging of last year's parliamentary elections. The reports said that the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia could sow the seeds of a similar revolution in Egypt." Suleiman also said that Mubarak had authorised the export of Egyptian natural gas to Israel in 2000. "At that time, Mubarak issued orders to former prime minister Atef Ebeid and former minister of petroleum Sameh Fahmi to give his business associate Hussein Salem exclusive access to the export of gas to Israel via the East Mediterranean Gas Company." "As a result, Salem concluded a contract with the General Organisation of Petroleum in 2005," Suleiman said. Joining forces with Suleiman, a further six high-profile figures from the former regime agreed that Mubarak had given special privileges to his business associate in exporting natural gas to Israel. These figures include Mamdouh El-Zoheiri, former head of the republican guard and governor of South Sinai, Abdel-Alim Taha, former first deputy minister of petroleum, and Alia El-Mahdi, dean of Cairo University's faculty of economics and political science. El-Zoheiri said that "when I was governor of Sinai, I saw that Mubarak and Salem enjoyed a very close relationship," adding that Mubarak had given orders allowing Salem to acquire large plots of land in Sharm El-Sheikh. However, Suleiman did not point an accusing finger at Mubarak on the charge of issuing orders to kill protesters in Tahrir Square. "Mubarak asked interior minister Habib El-Adli to exercise restraint and to refrain from opening fire on protesters as long as their demonstrations were peaceful," Suleiman said, adding that "orders to open fire came from the Interior Ministry, with El-Adli having the final decision." "There were reports that Muslim Brotherhood activists were trying to torch police stations and the headquarters of the ruling party. These are two reasons why opening fire on the protesters could be a case of self-defence." Meanwhile, Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud is carrying on investigations into the alleged looting of presidential palaces during the security vacuum created by the 25 January Revolution. A fact-finding committee formed at the request of the HCAF said that no money or valuables had been found in any of the eight presidential palaces in Egypt. However, the committee members found medals dedicated to the deposed president by several countries, as well as jewellery worth around LE20,000, presumably belonging to former Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak. No documents listing the possessions of the Mubaraks have been found. Zakaria Azmi, former chief of presidential staff, and major-general Gamal Abdel-Aziz, ex-secretary of Mubarak, were responsible for opening safes and storage places in the palaces in response to an article by poet Farouk Guweida on 10 June alleging that the presidential palaces had been looted during the revolution.
