GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Public prosecutors in Egypt have completed their case against former President Hosni Mubarak and they have called for the death penalty, by hanging, for him and seven government officials, including his interior minister, Habib El-Adly. They have argued that he was personally implicated in the deaths of several protesters during the uprising in Egypt in early 2011.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Ahram, CS Monitor
High turnout in Egypt, with new Islamist group taking 24%
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Russians appear to be falling out of love with former leader Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and turnout has been high, 62 percent, in Egyptian voting as parts of the country move into runoffs in a complex voting system.
Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party has enjoyed almost unrivaled popularity for the past 10 years, but early election results appear to show a change of heart by voters, with the party’s majority in parliament disappearing.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party, described by Business Week as “broad-based”, is expected to win the largest number of seats in the first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s long reign of power ended early in 2011. But the conservative, Islamist Salafi Nour party, a newcomer, secured 24 percent of early results, surprising observers with its strong showing. The country now faces runoffs in several voting areas; results from the country’s complex voting system will not be known until January 2012.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Business Week, Guardian, Reuters
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Egypt’s former leader, Hosni Mubarak, arrived in court Wednesday 3 August on a hospital bed for the opening of his trial: he and his sons Alaa and Gamal, and several senior officials and officers are being tried on a number of charges, from killing protesters to illegally gaining wealth. The former president could be given the death sentence if found guilty of ordering protesters to be killed.
Mubarak, 83, fell from power in February 2011. According to Aljazeera, “More than 800 people were killed and about 6,000 wounded in the 18 days of protests that eventually toppled Mubarak’s regime.”
The court case is being widely shown on television, in several countries. The judge decided three days ago to move it to a police academy in Cairo for security reasons, although Egyptian media reported in June that the former president was too frail and ill to be moved.
Update 19 February Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The assets of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his entourage that have been reported by banks and others to the Swiss government in the past week now amount to tens of millions of francs, the Swiss foreign ministry told news agencies late Friday.
Bern had already been notified of some of these assets as early as 15 February a spokeswoman for the department told GenevaLunch last week.
Switzerland can normally provide assistance to Egypt to rrecover any assets considered to have been illicitly obtained by the Mubarak group if the country’s new government files a legal request for help. It did so Wednesday 16 February, according to swissinfo, which also notes that Swiss travel restrictions for Egypt have been eased.
Related story, Mubarak assets: first clues trickle in to Bern, GenevaLunch, 15 February (including names of 12 whose assets must be blocked under Swiss law)
Egyptians are filling the streets of Cairo and other cities Friday night 11 February, upon the news of the resignation of Hosni Mubarak as the country’s president. The announcement came at the end of the afternoon. Power has been handed to the army. Analyses and possible implications are starting to come in from around the world.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Guardian, New York Times
Video, Al Jazeera
Thousands of Egyptian workers, bus drivers and public transport workers in Cairo are on strike 10 February, spreading labour unrest and furthering the wave of anti-government protests calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
With its efforts to manage the crisis failing, the government warned of the potential for a coup, says the Associated Press.
In the meantime, civil rights groups in Egypt claim that scores of protesters have been secretly detained, some have “disappeared” while many more are being tortured.
Human Rights Watch says that the Egyptian government, “instead of running scared, is fighting back with both words and violence, to quash its opponents, portraying the opposition as a foreign-backed, un-Egyptian group of conspirators.”
Links to other sites: Associated Press, CNBC, CNN and Human Rights Watch
29 January 2011: dust storm leaving Egypt (photo, Jeff Schmalz / NASA Modis rapid response team
(2 videos) Egyptians marching in the streets against the government of Hosmi Mubarak have been faced in recent days with more than the threat of military action against them: a weekend dust storm swept across Cairo and much of Egypt, adding to their woes.
The storm has now flown out of Egypt, over the Mediterranean.
Mubarak late Tuesday 1 February promised he will step down as president, but not as quickly as the crowds would like, reports indicate. Some rioting broke out in Alexandria after the president made his announcement.
They, and now US President Barack Obama, are encouraging Mubarak to move with greater speed, perhaps that of the desert dust storm that rapidly left the country.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, New York Times, Telegraph, UK
Reuters video of Mubarak’s announcement
Barack Obama video, White House
Nobel peace prize winner reportedly “detained”
Cairo is the scene of continuing protests against the government of Hosmi Mubarak, in power for 30 years, and as protests appear to have spread to Alexandria and Suez, the government has clamped down on the Internet, severely disrupting access to it throughout the country. The government has banned crowds, but thousands are taking to the street despite the ban.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, who has opposed the government, returned to Egypt Thursday, saying he would join in the protests and Friday afternoon he is reported to have been “detained”. Media in Cairo say police are using tear gas and rubber bullets against crowds.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, BBC, Guardian, Jerusalem Post, New York Times
Fourth person dies after Tuesday demonstrations
Four people died in demonstrations against the government Tuesday 25 January in Egypt, three protesters and a police officer. Gatherings have now been banned by President Hosni Mubarak and social media sites that were used to organize the protests, including Twitter and Facebook, are blocked. Police fired tear gas on people who stayed late into the night into Cairo’s Tahrir square, to disperse the crowds. Reuters reports the city to be calm Wednesday morning, but the organizers of yesterday’s marches are calling for more protests against the Mubarak regime, in power for 27 years.
Links to other sites: Al-jazeera, Financial Times, Reuters
Cairo but also three other cities in Egypt have been the scene Tuesday 25 January of thousands of protesters, mainly peaceful until late afternoon, marching against the iron grip the government has over politics and power. Security forces reportedly sent 20,000 police onto the streets to keep order among an expected 100,000 people calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down, but Egyptian daily al-Ahram in Cairo reports numbers to be closer to 20,000. Reports of violence breaking out at the end of the afternoon vary widely, reflecting the difficulty of many of the eyewitnesses to gain a perspective on the situation in the face of limited reliable or official information.
Mubarak had declared 25 January “police day” in hopes of raising support. His interior minister, General Habib Adli told al-Ahram Tuesday, reports YNet News, “that 19 Arabs suspected of links to al-Qaeda were arrested last month in Egypt en route to Iraq. The suspects were planning to carry out terrorist attacks against various places of worship in Egypt, he said.”
Links to other sites: CNN, CS Monitor, Guardian
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has benefited from an outpouring of nationalist fervour following the Egyptian soccer team’s loss to Algeria after two qualifying matches 14 and 18 November. The fallout from the football matches has included Egyptians being attacked in Algiers, Algeria, and a rupture in diplomatic ties between the two countries. Mubarak addressed the country’s parliament Saturday 21 November and vowed to protect the dignity of Egyptian citizens living abroad, to loud applause.
The incidents surrounding the arrival of the Algerian football team in Cairo, Egypt 14 November for a World Cup qualifying match with arch-rivals Egypt are to be investigated by the disciplinary committee of the world football regulatory body, Fifa announced 19 November. The bus carrying the Algerian team was beset by rioters and stoned as it moved from the airport to the hotel.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was in Washington DC for talks with US President Barack Obama Tuesday, 18 August, his first visit in almost 6 years. Egypt is a key ally of the US in the Middle East, and the US needs its involvement in the issues of the Israel-Palestine peace process and Iran’s nuclear programme. Relations with the previous US administration of George W. Bush were strained by the latter’s insistence on human rights in Egypt. Mubarak asked in his meeting with Obama that Israel take “concrete steps” towards the peace process, which observers say means that Israel stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Obama has publicly called on Israel to stop construction, a major point of contention between Palestinians and Israelis. Yesterday, 18 August, reports from Jerusalem indicated that Israel had not approved any new building in the occupied territories since end March. Israeli officials have played down the fact because of the difficulties it raises within the ruling coalition in Israel. BBC, Jerusalem Post, Reuters
US Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, arrived in Cairo, Egypt for talks with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak 27 July, after stops in Syria and Israel. It was Mitchell’s second visit to Damascus, Syria in two months. Talks were “candid and positive.” In Israel, Mitchell met Defense Minister Ehud Barak. After talks in Cairo, Mitchell is to see Palestinian President Abbas, and Israeli leaders 28 July. This is part of a concerted effort by the Obama administration to move the Middle East peace process along. Other senior US administration officials are expected in the region later this week. Al-Jazeera, BBC, Jerusalem Post
