CAIRO: Following a nine-hour court session, presiding judge Ahmed Refaat announced that the final verdict in Hosni Mubarak’s trial will be pronounced on June 2, adding that the session will be aired live on national television.
In what is known as the trial of the century, Egypt’s ousted president Mubarak, his ex-interior minister and six of his aides face charges of complicity in killing protesters during the popular uprising that toppled the regime in January 2011. Mubarak also faces corruption charges along with his two sons Alaa and Gamal and businessman Hussein Salem in the same case.
During the Wednesday hearing, where defense lawyers made their final statements, El-Adly addressed the court for over an hour and a half, stressing that he ordered his troops not to use live ammunition against protesters and to exercise extreme self-restraint.
He claimed that "foreign elements", including members of Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, infiltrated the protesters and shot at them and at the police.
Outside the courtroom, dozens of Mubarak supporters and opponents were separated by police.
Both sides chanted and held up banners. One man in the anti-Mubarak crowd held a noose aloft to underline calls for the once all-powerful strongman to face the death penalty.
The defendants are charged with complicity in the killing of 225 protesters and injury of over 1,300 who were targeted in public squares, not in front of police stations from Janu.25-28 before the police withdrew and army forces were deployed.
If convicted, Mubarak and his aides could face the death penalty, but most observers believe that it is highly unlikely.
Source: The Daily News Egypt, Feb. 22, 2012
Related articles:
Feb 21, 2012
CAIRO - The chief prosecutor in the trial of ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak said in his closing remarks yesterday that the former president should be given the death penalty for the killings of protesters in last year's ...
Jan 29, 2012
Susan Mubarak, the wife of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak sent nine personal letters dictated by her husband to a senior attorney, in order for him to deliver them to heads of states which had good relations with ...
Jan 05, 2012
Cairo (CNN) -- Prosecutors in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak formally requested a penalty of death by hanging for Mubarak and several of his fellow defendants Thursday, an attorney at the court said.
Jan 09, 2012
"We merged our voice with the prosecutor's closing arguments from last week's hearing and demanded the death sentence to Mubarak, his former interior minister Habib El Adly, and four of his aides for killing hundreds of...
No comments:
Post a Comment