Gamal Essam El-Din reports on demands by Mubarak's lawyer Farid El-Deeb that Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, chairman of the ruling military junta, be called to the witness stand The second session of the trial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak opens next Monday. In the meantime, Mubarak is being held at the army's International Medical Centre (IMC) where he is receiving treatment from heart problems. Located on the Cairo-Ismailia desert road, it is convenient for the Police Academy, where a temporary courtroom has been set up for the trial. Mubarak was visited by his wife at the hospital on Sunday. Mubarak appeared in good health when he appeared in the courtroom for the opening of his trial on 3 August. "He looked frail but in reasonable health. He had not lost weight and appeared alert," says political analyst Amr El-Shobaki. Mubarak's lawyer Farid El-Deeb has been doing the rounds of satellite television studios, repeating that he intends to call Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, chairman of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) as a defence witness. During the opening session many viewers were appalled by the incompetence and theatrical antics of the lawyers representing families of those killed during the 25 January Revolution days. In comparison, Mubarak's veteran lawyer El-Deeb appeared composed. He presented the presiding judge Ahmed Rifaat with seven requests, including calling Field Marshal Tantawi, Chief of Staff Sami Anan and former vice president and chief of General Intelligence Omar Suleiman as witnesses. El-Deeb has been quoted as claiming that Tantawi, Suleiman and Anan have no objections to testifying, suggestions that a military source denies. "What El-Deeb is saying is untrue. It is the military prosecutor's job to review orders aimed at summoning military personnel to testify in civilian courts," says the source. On 5 August El-Deeb was reported to have said that he was told by Mubarak that Field Marshal Tantawi issued the orders to cut off mobile and Internet services during the early days of the revolution. The claim elicited a quick response from the military, with a spokesman insisting the allegation was "false and entirely unfounded". On 28 May Mubarak, former prime minister Ahmed Nazif and former interior minister Habib Al-Adli were fined a total of LE540 million for the harm caused to the economy when mobile and Internet services were suspended in late January. They immediately appealed the verdict, which is due to be reviewed by the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) on 3 October. Many commentators expect the SAC to overturn the earlier ruling on the grounds that the petitioners in the original case failed to show how the national economy was damaged by cutting mobile and Internet connections. Some analysts argue that El-Deeb's insistence on calling Tantawi to the stand is indicative of the "cold war" that now characterises the relationship between the former president and his defence minister. El-Deeb's request is based on the attendance, caught on television cameras, of Mubarak, Tantawi, Anan and Suleiman at a meeting held at the "military operations" room early in the revolution. During a speech at a recent graduation ceremony at the Police Academy Tantawi also stated that "members of the SCAF met during the revolution's early days and agreed unanimously that the army would never open fire on protesters". El-Deeb believes Suleiman's testimony given to prosecution authorities on 18 April also plays in his client's favour. Suleiman insists that he never heard Mubarak issuing orders to former interior minister Habib Al-Adli to open fire on protesters. "Security forces were compelled to open fire in self defence when they were attacked by mobs," Mubarak's vice president in the dying days of the regime told investigators. Either El-Deeb is doing his best to show that the military top brass, led by Tantawi, had a hand in all the orders issued during the course of the revolution, says El-Shobaki, thus tarnishing their reputations, or else he is banking on the military supporting Mubarak and passing the buck to former minister of the interior Habib El-Adli. In the full transcript of Mubarak's interrogation the ousted president is clear that he never issued orders for police officers to fire on the protesters. "On the night of 27 January -- before the tragic and violent confrontations of the Friday of Anger -- El-Adli told me that the Interior Ministry had reached a deal with protesters and that they would stay in Tahrir Square until midnight and then withdraw peacefully," Mubarak told investigators. "I agreed with Al-Adli that it would be sufficient to use water cannons to disperse protesters and not allow them to occupy Tahrir Square. I was later informed by the interior minister that central security had to use force because they were being attacked by mobs and this is why I asked the army to help security forces." Many analysts have expressed concern that the list of charges prepared by the prosecution authorities against Mubarak lack important documentation, particularly allegations that he used his position to secure massive financial gains. "It is not clear what evidence the prosecution authorities possess to suggest Mubarak was instrumental in helping his business associate Suleiman monopolise the export of gas to Israel," says Muslim Brotherhood lawyer Ahmed Abu Baraka. "Nor is it clear what evidence they have uncovered implicating Mubarak's two sons in the sale of more than two million square metres of land in South Sinai to Salem at below market price." El-Deeb has also requested that six former governors of South Sinai be called to the witness stand to provide details of the suspect land deals. "Even if the court does summon them," says Abu Baraka, "they are unlikely to testify against Mubarak. If they claim they acted on orders from Mubarak or his sons they would be implicating themselves in criminality and face prosecution. They are hardly likely to say they followed such orders at the expense of all rules and regulations."
