Hosni Mubarak's defence opened by attempting to place responsibility for the deaths of protesters squarely on the shoulders of the military, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Farid El-Deeb, the lawyer leading the defence of Hosni Mubarak, blamed the Armed Forces for the deaths of hundreds of peaceful protesters during the heady days of the 25 January Revolution in a move many will interpret as a settling of scores between the former president and his long time minister of defence, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. According to El-Deeb, after protesters filled Tahrir Square on 28 January the then interior minister Habib El-Adli contacted Mubarak to concede that the police had lost control of the situation. "As a result," said El-Deeb, "Mubarak exercised his constitutional rights to impose a curfew and entrust the army with maintaining security across the country." "From 4pm on 28 January, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [SCAF] was in full control of Egypt. Law 183/1952 is clear on this: in times of riots and wide-scale disturbances the army must be allowed to impose security and restore order. In such instances control of non-military security forces passes to the army." "[Former] president Hosni Mubarak was disposed of all his responsibilities. They were delegated to SCAF and its leader, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi." The responsibility for any deaths of protesters or injuries sustained after 4pm on 28 January cannot, El-Deeb continued, be placed on the former president or the police. "President Mubarak could not have issued orders to open on anyone after this time. It is the minister of war [now defence], the military ruler, who took charge and should be held responsible." Mubarak, El-Deeb continued, did not subsequently intervene to stop the killing of protesters because he was unaware that they were being killed. Lawyers representing the families of protesters shot dead by the police were infuriated by El-Deeb continually referring to anyone demonstrating against Mubarak's rule as a rioter. And under legislation in force since 1923, El-Deeb told the court, "the police have every right to open fire on rioters who attack them." El-Deeb quoted testimony given in April by Omar Suleiman, Mubarak's chief of general intelligence and vice president, to the effect that "saboteurs had infiltrated peaceful protesters and began attacking police stations". He added that the testimonies of former interior ministers Mahmoud Wagdi and Mansour Eissawi confirmed that the police had been placed in a situation where they were forced to defend themselves as saboteurs and arsonists attacked police stations. El-Deeb also cited a story that appeared in the state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper last January as providing mitigating evidence. The story alleged that "armed elements of the Shia party Hizbullah and the Islamist Hamas movement had managed to infiltrate Egypt through underground tunnels in Sinai to launch a series of subversive acts, including storming the headquarters of the Radio and Television Union and torching the headquarters of the NDP." El-Deeb claimed that Mubarak did his best to respond to the demands of peaceful protesters: "Unlike other leaders in the Arab world he did not issue orders to open fire on protesters and he never sought to leave the country." He also claimed that violent clashes in Mohamed Mahmoud Street last November and in Qasr Al-Aini Street in December confirmed that gangs of armed rioters, rather than peaceful demonstrators, were behind the street protests. In a scathing attack against the prosecution El-Deeb singled out Mustafa Suleiman, the chief prosecutor who oversaw the investigation into allegations against Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, for particular scorn. "The chief prosecutor began by politicising the case. Instead of focussing on criminal charges, he concentrated on the political issue of succession though this is not on the charge sheet levelled against president Mubarak. He spoke ill of Mubarak's wife Suzanne, insulting her although she is not one of the defendants, and accusing her of orchestrating the succession scenario. Yet he never offered any clear evidence about this alleged scenario." "Why," El-Deeb asked rhetorically, "did the chief prosecutor focus on the issue of succession? The answer is that he wanted to make it a hot topic for the media. He wanted to slander president Mubarak and his family and defame their reputations." Article 1130 of the law on criminal procedures, said El-Deeb, obliges prosecutors not to direct insults to defendants without clear evidence "yet the chief prosecutor took the floor to launch a smear campaign against my client despite the fact that charges against him are unfounded and have no documentary evidence to back them". Having cited a report by the state-owned Al-Akhbar in defence of Mubarak, El-Deeb then accused prosecutors of relying on unconfirmed press reports to smear his client. "There is not one shred of evidence against my client. All the charges are based on false information and hearsay." El-Deeb accused lawyers representing the families of those killed in the revolution of grandstanding, of seeking to use the case to further their own fame. "My client," he concluded, "is a victim of malicious accusations. Mubarak is an honourable man who has done no wrong. He placed the law above everything and worked tirelessly to serve the nation. He was neither a tyrant nor a bloodthirsty man. He respected the judiciary and did his best during his terms in office to ensure its independence." El-Deeb took a little over an hour in opening his defence of Mubarak. He then asked for five sessions to be allocated to the defence. The first session -- on 17 January -- would, he said, involve a verbal defence of Mubarak while the other sessions would be given over to presenting documents proving Mubarak's innocence. El-Deeb had begun by reviewing Mubarak's military and political record: "He served for 30 years in the army and 30 years in politics working for his nation. He toiled honestly to further the interests of Egypt and nobody has the right to smear his achievements." Mubarak, 83, was wheeled into the courtroom on a stretcher. The trial of the former president was set to resume today. It is scheduled to end on 16 February when a date will be set for the verdict to be delivered.
