Egypt-s Mubarak may be freed
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2013-08/20/content_16905850.htm
CAIRO - Egypt's former
leader Hosni Mubarak could soon be freed from jail, giving a new jolt to a
nation in turmoil, after a court ruled on Monday that he could no longer be
held in custody on a corruption charge.
His lawyer said he could be released within days, six weeks
after the armed forces Mubarak once commanded deposed his elected Islamist
successor to spark the bloodiest internal conflict in the modern history of the
most populous Arab state.
The army detained President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 after
huge protests against him. It has since cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood.
Among hundreds of casualties, dozens of security personnel have died, including
24 policemen killed by suspected Islamists near the border with Israel on
Monday.
At 85, Mubarak may have no political future but his release
could stir emotions and raise new questions on whether the popular uprising
that ended his 30-year rule in February 2011 is leading back simply to a new
form of military-backed government.
Arrested two years ago as talk of democracy swept the Arab
world, the former strongman appeared in a courtroom cage at a trial in which he
was convicted of complicity in the murder of protesters. In January, Egypt's highest
court ordered a retrial.
After Monday's court ruling, the only legal grounds for
Mubarak's continued detention rest on another corruption case which his lawyer,
Fareed el-Deeb, said would be settled swiftly.
"All we have left is a simple administrative procedure
that should take no more than 48 hours. He should be freed by the end of the
week," Deeb told Reuters.
Without confirming that Mubarak would be released, a
judicial source said he would spend another two weeks behind bars before a
court ruling on the outstanding case against him.
The former leader is being held at Tora prison on the
southern outskirts of Cairo,
which also hosts senior Brotherhood members detained in a clampdown that
followed Morsi's ouster.
Mubarak's eventual release could generate more political
tension in Egypt, where
almost 900 people, including nearly 100 soldiers and police, have been killed
since the authorities forcibly dispersed Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo on Wednesday.
In the Sinai peninsula,
where attacks on security forces have multiplied since Morsi's removal,
suspected Islamist militants killed at least 24 policemen on Monday.
Three policemen were also wounded in the grenade and
machinegun attack near the north Sinai town of Rafah
on the border with Israel,
medical and security sources said.
Photos circulated on social media and purporting to show the
aftermath of the attack showed victims lying with their hands tied behind them,
apparently shot execution-style. They were not in uniform. The photos could not
be immediately verified.
A sniper also shot dead a policeman in the Sinai city of El Arish, the state news
agency said, quoting a security source.
Mounting insecurity in Sinai worries Egypt and also the United
States because the desert peninsula lies next to Israel and the Palestinians' Hamas-ruled Gaza
Strip, as well as the Suez Canal, one of the
world's most important shipping arteries.
The attacks underlined the challenges facing Egypt's new
rulers, who portray their campaign as combating terrorism.
The Brotherhood renounced violence decades ago, denies any
links with armed militants, including those in Sinai who have gained strength
since Mubarak's overthrow, and disavows attacks on churches that have
proliferated in the past week.
Pressing an official drive against the Islamist movement, a
prosecutor ordered that Morsi, held in an undisclosed location since his
removal, should be detained for another 15 days in a new case of inciting violence,
the state news agency MENA said.
The Brotherhood itself has responded with outrage after 37
Islamists died in government custody on Sunday in an incident it described as
"murder". The authorities said the men died of tear gas suffocation
during a thwarted jailbreak.
"The murders show the violations and abuses that
political detainees who oppose the July 3 coup get subjected to," said the
Brotherhood, which has called for an independent, non-Egyptian investigation
into the incident.
CONFLICTING RESPONSES
Egypt's
upheaval is causing global jitters, but no consensus on how to respond has
emerged in the West or the Arab world.
European Union foreign ministers will hold an emergency
meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss how
to force Egypt's
army-backed government into seeking a peaceful compromise.
Options likely to be discussed include cutbacks in Europe's
5-billion euro ($6.7 billion) package of grants and loans promised last year,
as well as a possible arms embargo against Egypt,
said EU envoy Bernardino Leon.
"No options are being ruled out," he told
reporters.
The United States, an ally of Egypt since it made peace with
Israel in 1979, has postponed delivery of four F-16 fighters and scrapped a
joint military exercise, but has not halted its $1.55 billion in annual aid,
spent mostly on US-made arms supplies.
There are increasing calls from US lawmakers for the aid to
be suspended. "For us to sit by and watch this happen is a violation of
everything that we stood for," Senator John McCain, a former Republican
presidential nominee, said.
But Saudi Arabia,
another US ally, pledged to fill any financial gaps left by Western countries
withdrawing aid from Egypt
over the army crackdown.
"To those who have declared they are stopping aid to Egypt or are waving such a threat, the Arab and
Muslim nations are wealthy with their people and resources and will not shy
away from offering a helping hand to Egypt," Saudi Foreign Minister
Prince Saud al-Faisal said.
Saudi Arabia
and other Gulf Arab monarchies, apart from Qatar, have long mistrusted the
Brotherhood's political ambitions.
Israel is
also prodding the West to stick by Egypt's army, citing the need for
stability. "Like it or not, the army is the only player that can restore
law and order," a senior Israeli official said on Monday.
Egypt
has made clear it will reject any attempts to use aid flows as a lever.