A lawyer representing the former commander of the Central Security Forces has entered a not guilty plea for his client, who faces charges of involvement in murdering anti-Mubarak protesters last January. Nabil Medhat Salem, the lawyer for ex-commander Ahmed Ramzy, told the Cairo Criminal Court Tuesday that protesters were killed near Cairo's Tahrir Square after police forces withdrew from their positions, a fact he said refutes the prosecution's argument that protesters were shot down in the square. He also dismissed charges that Ramzy had armed police officers with lethal weapons. Former President Hosni Mubarak, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and five additional security officials currently face charges alongside Ramzy for murdering protesters during the 25 January uprising. The Egyptian government has said 846 demonstrators were killed and nearly 3,000 injured between 25 January and 11 February 2011. The trial, which began last August, has already heard the defense's arguments for Mubarak and Adly. In making his case, Salem highlighted contradictions in witness accounts and demanded the court exclude their testimonies and pronounce his client innocent, according to the state-run news agency MENA. Salem also requested three military weapons experts to testify about the Central Security Forces' ammunition reports from the period between 25 January and 11 February 2011 and whether the soldiers were given live ammunition. The law only recognizes direct responsibility for murders, Ramzy's lawyer said, which spares Ramzy responsibility for those under his command.
