CAIRO - Egypt's former Minister of Interior and some of his senior aides are due to stand trial by a criminal court on April 24 on charges of premeditated killing of hundreds of peaceful protesters in Cairo and governorates, a judicial source at Cairo's Court of Appeal said. "Habib el-Adly and six of his senior aides would stand trial for deliberately killing protesters during the January 25 revolution. They face death penalty," the source said. He added that the prosecutors used the maximum charge because "some of the dead were children". According to the New Child Law, the accusations against suspects should be the maximum. The former minister faces death penalty if convicted. El-Adly and the six police generals are also accused of causing insecurity across the nation and leading to gross financial losses to public and private properties. The former interior minister, also on trial on money laundering, is widely believed to have ordered policemen to shoot at protesters and then withdraw them from the streets after January 28 when protesters clashed with security forces and the Army was deployed. Hassan Abdel Rahman, the head of the once-feared State Security Police; Adly Fayed, the chief of the Public Security Department; Ahmed Ramzi, the head of the Central Security Police; and Ismail el-Sha'ir; the Cairo security chiefs as well as security chief in three governorates are due to appear in the dock on April 24. "Adly and his aides are facing death penalties if convicted," said the judicial source, indicating that the case could take time to finalise. Meanwhile, prosecutors in some other governorates referred to criminal courts 100 policemen from various ranks for shooting at peaceful protesters. Dates for the trials are yet to be set. State prosecutors have interviewed hundreds of eyewitnesses, injured protesters, and families of those killed during the anti-Mubarak demonstrations in order to comprehensively compile a description of events during the 18-day protests. El-Adly is also accused of cutting off all communication services, disrupting proper communication between security forces, which lead to chaos and the compromise of citizens' safety and the country's economy. Other accusations include the waste of public funds.
