In an ironic reversal of roles, many figures who effectively ran Egypt for the past few years were arrested pending investigation into violence against protesters during the 25 January uprising on the same day that Tarek El Zomor and Aboud El Zomor, the country's most famous political prisoners, were released. Their release came yesterday, almost a decade after they served their full sentences for their roles in Sadat's assassination. Investigations of top assistants to the minister of interior continued today. They were arrested recently charged with the killing of protesters and in the security vacuum that occurred in the country from 28 January. State Security head Hassan Abdel Rahman, Deputy Minister for Central Security Ahmed Ramzy, Deputy Minister for General Security Adly Fayed, and Deputy Minister for Cairo's Security Ismail El Shaer all denied the charges. Alexandria's security chief Mohamed Ibrahim and central security sector chief Adel Lakany, also being tried, deny having received or issued orders to use live ammunition on protesters. Al-Ahram publishes on its front page the last of the official fact-finding committee's announcements: former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, currently on trial, and the Mubarak regime's political leadership are responsible for issuing orders to shoot protesters with live ammunition. It also announces its discovery that new names have been implicated in these events. Al-Ahram also publishes a full account of the arrest of former member of parliament Abdel Naser El Gabry, after the fact-finding committee determined his responsibility for what has become known as "the camel incident"--a mounted attack on protesters in Tahrir Square during the uprising. Gabry was referred to the general prosecution for investigation. According to Al-Shorouk, authorities are still trying to locate former member of parliament Youssef Khattab, the second suspect in the case. Al-Shorouk announces on its front page the newest charge against toppled President Mubarak. A lawyer has accused Hosni Mubarak and former Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmi of taking over Egypt's gold mines. Al-Dostour reports another charge against Mubarak received by the general prosecutor: that he wasted the country's assets and damaged its interests by selling state land to businessmen at low prices. Investigations are expected to start shortly. Al-Dostour also publishes the Ministry of Agriculture's investigations into businessman Soleiman Amer's illegal acquisition of land. The release of political prisoners, including the El Zomor cousins, made it into all the papers. Al-Shorouk publishes a profile of the cousins' controversial lives. Most opinion columns, meanwhile, either discussed the proposed constitutional amendments--a public referendum on which is scheduled for 19 March--or analysed the recent sectarian conflict and the counter-revolution efforts believed to have triggered it. In Al-Shorouk, columnist Khaled El Khamisy calls on people to vote no for the constitutional amendments and demand a presidential council to rule the country for two years, during which time a new constitution could be prepared. In a column entitled "Revolutions don't change people overnight", Amr Hamzawy, research director at the Carnegie Middle East Center, says the reasons for current sectarian conflict are the same as those that caused such events before the revolution. He says that repairing weaknesses caused by the old regime is the only way to keep such conflict from happening again. Gamal Abdel Gawad, head of Al Ahram center for Political and Strategic Studies, questions in an Al-Ahram article the readiness of the country's political powers to rule after the short transition period set by the army, arguing that they are too new to democracy. Abdel Gawad suggests a "supreme national security council", a third of which would be figures from the military, to handle the nation's security during this critical time. In Al-Ahram, Abdel Moaty Ahmed raises the question "what if voters say no to the constitutional ammendments?" and suggests guidelines for a successful referendum. Abdel Gawad Ali uses his space in Al-Ahram to publish a study by researcher Ramzy Abdel Latif that suggests further changes to the constitution, cancelling the women's quota in parliament and prohibiting ministers from running in parliamentary elections, as many ministers won in the last round. Al-Ahram columnist Iman Khodeir suggested explicitly limiting the roles of the president's family in the constitution in order to keep them from dominating the political scene in the same way Mubrak's family did. Gamal Asaad discusses the dangerous implications that the current Christian discontent could have for the revolution in his article "The events of Atfeeh and the counter-revolution." In his Al-Ahram article, meanwhile, Ragab El Banna warns that the revolution is still endangered by the beneficiaries of the old regime who, he says, are still fighting it.
