UNLIKE the first trial of Mubarak in August 2011, when the public called for him to be hanged for killing around 800 people in the 18 days of the January 25 Revolution, this week's retrial has not attracted the same attention at home and abroad. For long weeks, the young revolutionaries had been pressing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), that ruled the country in the transitional period after Mubarak stepped down, to expedite the referral of the ousted president and other members of his regime to trial. This was so that they could be punished for the murder of hundreds of citizens during the revolt in early 2011. Members of the former regime were sentenced to life imprisonment, but the public thought that this was not enough. Strangely, the Appeals Court approved granting Mubarak a retrial, out of the conviction that the case lacked concrete evidence, failing to prove that the protesters were killed on Mubarak's instructions. The retrial will result in the same verdict or a lesser sentence; Mubarak could even be found innocent and released. Apart from the families of the victims, most Egyptians, including some political activists, have started questioning the moral basis for Mubarak's trial, especially as there have been more martyrs since his toppling. Some people were martyred under SCAF rule during the transitional period and, after that, since Morsi becoming the country's first elected President. More importantly, security men have been cleared in many other cases of the murder of protesters, due to lack of evidence. The public are now wondering why the former SCAF leaders have not been questioned about the deaths of tens of citizens and the injuring of hundreds more in the many revolutionary incidents during a transitional period that lasted 18 months till Morsi's election. Similarly, no-one has managed to sue any MB members or other Islamists, despite the activists suspecting them of being behind the murder and injury of many demonstrators in the protests organised against Morsi's rule. Some analysts wonder whether the retrial of Mubarak will end in the releasing of a man who seemed so confident in the first session of the trial that only lasted a few minutes, with the judge referring the case to another circuit of the Appeals Court. How will the public react if Mubarak is released, especially as they are now comparing life under Mubarak with life today?
