CAIRO – Seven months ago, the mere thought of seeing ex-president Hosni Mubarak in the dock in a courtroom would have seemed a fantasy to Egyptians. Never did they in their wildest dreams think that Habib el-Adly, the powerful Interior Minister, the two sons of the ousted president and Hosni Mubarak and himself would be held on charges of graft or crimes of political corruption. But the development of events has proved that there is a way if there is a will. A few days prior to the trial of August 3, there were speculations of whether Mubarak would be actually transferred from the Sharm el-Sheikh hospital to the courtroom in Cairo or not on health grounds. There was a general conviction that the trial would be more like a performance aimed at appeasing public anger. However, the moment, yesterday morning, where the defendants appeared in the dock was historic in the full sense of the word. It drew mixed human feelings of sympathy for a man that had fallen from the peak and a desire to see justice maintained. The area outside the courtroom reflected another aspect of diversity in the clashes that occurred between anti- and pro-Mubarak protesters. Egyptians are today divided with one camp refusing to see a former symbol of power reduced in such a moment of human weakness. Another camp, however, found him guilty of many charges but would go for a pardon while yet another, namely the families of the martyrs killed in the January revolution and of the physical and moral victims harmed under his regime, seek due punishment for the culprits. The unprecedented broadcasting of the trial has made Egyptians heave a sigh of relief at the fact that transparency has finally allowed them to witness an unbelievable event.
