For the first time in his trial, Mubarak heard the prosecution lambasting his rule as president. Gamal Essam El-Din reports from the courtroom On Tuesday prosecutors began stating their case in the trial of former president Hosni Mubarak and 10 other defendants, including his sons Gamal and Alaa, businessman Hussein Salem, former interior minister Habib El-Adli and six of his senior lieutenants. Mubarak and his sons face charges of abusing their positions and illegal profiteering. Mubarak, El-Adli and the six former security chiefs are also charged with complicity in the killing of more than 850 peaceful protesters during the early days of the 25 January Revolution. Chief prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman used the first of three days in which he will outline the prosecution's case to focus on political accusations. According to Suleiman, "Mubarak imposed a corrupt regime which devastated political life in Egypt". "Mubarak devoted the last decade of his rule to attempting to ensure his son would succeed him. He allowed corruption to proliferate across Egypt, condoned the wide- scale rigging of parliamentary and municipal elections and imposed a severe crackdown on anyone whose popularity might threaten his son's accession." In a scathing critique of Mubarak's presidency Suleiman accused the former 83-year- old of presiding over a massive increase in the gap between Egypt's rich and poor and of squandering Egypt's regional and international prestige. Mubarak's long-time business associate Hussein Salem, now a fugitive in Spain, was accused of exploiting his close relationship with the former president to acquire large tracts of property at a fraction of their market value in the Red Sea tourist city of Sharm El-Sheikh. Suleiman described El-Adli, Mubarak's longest-serving interior minister, as imposing an iron grip on the people in order to further the interests of Mubarak, his family and their cronies." Mubarak, El-Adli and former security chiefs were also accused of ordering security forces to open fire on "groups of young people who staged peaceful protests asking for freedom and dignity". "When this failed to deter the pro- democracy protesters security vehicles were used to run them down," said Suleiman. "The result was the death of 225 citizens and the injury of 1,365." Suleiman characterised Mubarak as a man "whose lust for power drove him to resort to every possible means to keep himself in office" and in whose final year of rule "engineered the most blatant rigging of elections Egypt has seen since the revolution of 1952". "The rigging was ordered by Mubarak to pave the way for his son to succeed him." Suleiman concluded by saying that "Mubarak deserves the strongest sentence". Many believe that prosecutors will ask for the death penalty. The trial of Mubarak resumed on 2 January, and in the next few days prosecutors will outline further charges, including his role helping his associate Salem monopolise the sale of Egyptian natural gas to Israel. Lawyers representing the families of victims of the 25 January Revolution have insisted on summoning Lieutenant-general Sami Anan, chief of army staff and deputy chairman of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), to testify on whether Mubarak ordered him and other army leaders to open fire on protesters on 28 January. SCAF's head Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, former chief of General Intelligence Omar Suleiman and two former interior ministers have already testified in the case. Tantawi insisted to the court he had not received orders from Mubarak to open fire on protesters. Suleiman argued that "security men opened fire only after they were attacked by armed gangs which burned police stations and plundered the NDP's headquarters in Cairo". Lawyers of the victims have also demanded that the state-owned Television and Radio Union provide the court with all its records of events at Tahrir Square during the period from 25 to 31 January. They have also requested that Assem El-Gohari, chairman of the Illicit Gains Office (IGO), be summoned to answer questions on the wealth accrued by Mubarak and his family and that Mubarak be moved from the International Medical Centre on the Cairo-Ismailia road to Tora prison south of Cairo. Despite being carried into court on a stretcher on Tuesday Mubarak, wearing dark glasses and blue coat, looked in good health. His lawyer, Farid El-Deeb, claims he is too ill to walk. El-Deeb complained that he has been unable to secure information from the governorate of South Sinai, on the extent of lands allocated to Salem but said he was nonetheless ready to begin his defence of Mubarak and his sons. El-Adli's lawyers submitted requests including the summoning of provincial security chiefs in order that they be questioned on the orders they received. "We also want to listen to their testimony about how police stations were attacked and plundered in at least 11 governorates," said El-Adli's lawyer. The trial of Mubarak resumes after five police officers were acquitted of charges of illegally killing protesters in front of Cairo's Al-Sayeda Zeinab police station, one of 99 police stations that were set on fire on 28 January in a massive show of public anger at decades of human rights abuses by the security forces. Many of the youth movements that initiated the uprising against Mubarak have questioned the seriousness of the trial. Leaders of the 6 April Movement have claimed SCAF remains loyal to its former commander-in-chief and is seeking to avoid his conviction. Mubarak's trial opened on 3 August but was adjourned for three months on 24 September when victims' families' lawyers petitioned for presiding judge Ahmed Rifaat to be replaced, accusing him of bias towards the defendants. On 17 December Cairo's Appeal Court rejected the petition.
