CAIRO: The lawyer for former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Sunday that Mubarak is “very sad and sorry” that he has been accused of ordering live ammunition used against protesters. Mubarak's attorney, Fareed El Deeb, spoke with reporters on Sunday afternoon and said the ousted leader is “in very bad health” and suffers from a heart condition along with the return of colon cancer. The Egyptian Prosecutor General's office said last week that Mubarak faces several criminal charges, including using his position of authority to illegally acquire wealth and could potentially face the death penalty if found guilty on the charges of authorizing the killing of protesters. His lawyer denies that Mubarak gave any orders to use force or live ammunition against protesters who were calling for his removal. According to Minister of Justice Mohamed Abdel-Aziz El-Guindy, an official order requesting the transfer of Hosni Mubarak from the International Hospital in Sharm El-Sheikh to Cairo will be issued “soon.” The court where the trial will take place has not been announced and a statement from El-Guindy's office said due to the circumstances and high profile of this case, security will “take an unconventional form.” Mubarak's attorney said that the former president is “very sorry because he did not imagine such accusations,” and went on to say that Mubarak denies all accusations and charges leveled against him. El Deeb said that Mubarak expressed his sorrow in the wake of shootings at Tahrir during protests and that he had ordered a committee to investigate how those killings occurred. Almost a thousand people were killed during the 18-day revolution, including nearly 50 police officers. According to a source within the prosecutor general's office who wishes not to be identified, former Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has become a key witness against Mubarak and says that Mubarak was informed that the security services were using live ammunition against protesters at Tahrir and other places. Suleiman's testimony is expected to play a large part in evidence against Mubarak when he is brought to trial. Sources say that Suleiman is prepared to testify that former President Mubarak was given hourly briefings about the tactics used by the officers of the Ministry of Interior including live ammunition to disperse demonstrators, and that Mubarak approved of those actions. The unnamed source within the prosecutor's office went on to say that the investigation has so far revealed that Mubarak and El-Adly along with senior police officials cooperated to deliberately kill protesters, by shooting at them and in some cases running over them with tanks and other vehicles. Recently, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), has been accused by several activists and human rights workers in Egypt of procrastinating in enforcing the law against Mubarak. The SCAF were a main target of demonstrations this past Friday who staged a “Second Day of Rage” at Tahrir. Many protesters said the military junta was being too lenient on Mubarak and have been delaying the reform process. The ruling interim military government, SCAF, has responded to the charges against Mubarak saying that it has no connection to the case either way and that it has no intentions of granting amnesty or a pardon to former president Mubarak. In other news, a court fined Mubarak along with former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and former Interior Minister Habib El-Adly $90 million on Saturday for cutting off Internet and mobile phone service during the height of the revolution. The court ruled that Mubarak, Nazif and El-Adly were guilty of “damaging” Egypt's economy after ordering the shutdown of the country's Internet and telecommunications services. Mubarak is ordered to pay about $33 million, while Nazif is fined $7 million and El-Adly received the heaviest fine of $50 million. The Egyptian government restored Internet service on February 2nd, after a week-long blackout used to make it difficult for demonstrators to organize and for the citizens to communicate with the outside world. Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has said it will pay domestic mobile operators $16.8 million in compensation for the disruption of service. In a statement on Sunday, the ministry's spokesperson told Zawya Dow Jones the compensation would go to mobile operators who suffered financially from the forced disconnection of services.
