CAIRO: Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was arrested yesterday along with his two sons Gamal and Alaa. Public prosecutors ordered that they be detained for 15 days, due to ongoing investigations. A statement announcing this decision was published on a Facebook page set up by public prosecutors in order to facilitate dialogue between the families of those killed dung the uprisings and the legal authorities. The three were arrested in their residence in Sharm el-Sheikh, South Sinai, where they have been living since Hosni Mubarak was ousted on 11 February after two-week long popular uprisings. The public prosecutor had summoned Mubarak on Sunday for questioning over misappropriation of public money and the killing of protesters during recent clashes with security forces. Politicians loyal to Mubarak including former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly and business tycoon Ahmed Ezz, have already been arrested and questioned over similar allegations, early March. Mubarak released phone interview to television channel Al-Arabya, spreading public outrage as he supposedly “acted as if he still run the country,” declared an anonymous protester. Conflicting accounts on Hosni Mubarak's health report that the ex-President suffered an heart attack while he was questioned by public prosecutors. He was subsequently transferred to Sharm el-Sheikh main hospital, were he found shelter in the presidential suite. According to an hospital employee interviewed by television channel Al-Arabya, Mubarak came out of the car and reached the suite on his own legs. Many feared this was a move to avoid questioning, and Hosni Mubarak would never allow investigations. Nonetheless, sources declared that the questioning resumed inside the hospital's presidential suite. The younger of Mubarak two sons, Gamal started his career in investment banking, working for the Bank of America. He played a major role in the country's administration as key member of the ex-ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Before uprisings broke out, Gamal Mubarak was publicly known to be the main candidate to his father's succession as Egyptian President. His elder brother Alaa is also a businessman, even though he maintained a much lower profile than his brother's. They were reported having a sharp confrontation during their father's last days of rule, as Alaa accused Gamal of damaging his father's image as a President, instead of helping him concluding his mandate with dignity. In one of his last messages to the country, Mubarak solemnly declared is love for his people and the nation, vowing not to leave the country and to die on Egyptian soil. Mubarak's health conditions have never been publicly ascertained. Even though authorities always kept a high level of censorship on the matter, unconfirmed sources report him suffering from pancreatic cancer. A famous legal case saw prominent newspaper editor Ibrahim Essa being sentenced to 6 month after charges of spreading false news about Mubarak's health in 2007. Mubarak's detention comes after demonstrators resumed a sit-in in Tahrir Square to urge the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) to allow public prosecutors to act against the former President. During last Friday's demonstrations, protesters staged Mubarak's fake trial that ended with the judges unexpectedly delaying the sentence notwithstanding many evidences proving the former President's giult. In answer to ongoing peaceful demonstration, the Army cracked down on protesters on Friday night, shooting in the crowd and leaving at least 2 killed and 70 wounded. As people spontaneously re-assembled in Tahrir on Saturday morning and resumed protests, Army troops and anti-demonstrators supporters came back to the Square causing minor clashes with peaceful protesters, on Tuesday afternoon. The news of Mubarak's arrest reached the Square while a crowd of a thousand demonstrators was discussing around the sit-in, divided between supporters and opponents of the protests. The news was welcomed with unanimous enthusiasm, prompting chants and slogans against the former president addressing him as a “Dictator”.
