Mubarak trial helps restore military credibility

DNE
DNE
5 Min Read

 

CAIRO: The trial of ex-president Hosni Mubarak has restored credibility in the ruling military, after it was shaken by suspicions it was dragging its feet in bringing former regime officials to justice.

 

Until the morning of Wednesday, before Mubarak’s trial started, many Egyptians including youth who spearheaded the revolt that toppled him doubted that the military would put its former commander in a defendants’ cage.

A gasp of astonishment was audible in the court room when Mubarak, a decorated war hero who once headed the air force, was wheeled into the black cage.

The sight of Mubarak on a stretcher behind bars brought back the impression that the generals in charge of country since Mubarak’s resignation on February 11 would respond to the revolt’s demands, if only under pressure as some believe.

Hundreds of thousands had demonstrated in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square on July 8 to demand a purge of state institutions, especially the interior ministry, and a transparent trial of Mubarak.

Saad El-Katatney, the secretary general of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, said the trial "assured Egyptians that justice is taking its course and no criminal will get away with his crime, regardless of position."

"Continuing this way will build strong bridges of trust between the people and the [military]," he said.

Amr El-Chobaki, an analyst with the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said the trial would help restore confidence in the military.

"We are talking about a demand by protesters that for six months the military has ignored, and until the day before yesterday many believed it would not happen," he told AFP.

But his trial has not allayed fears among liberals and leftists of the military using Islamists, such as El-Katatney’s group, to ease in a government after its own heart.

Newspapers on Thursday reflected those fears.

Writing in the independent Al-Tahrir newspaper, long time gadfly Ibrahim Eissa said he was worried that the military would use the trial as a carte blanche for unpopular decisions.

"The people are proud that it has done it; that it has placed Mubarak in the cage, but I fear we will pay a heavy price for this trial," he wrote.

He raised worries that "the managers of this country will pass bad laws and unilateral decisions and will respond to any criticism or attack by saying: what more do you want from us? Didn’t we try Mubarak and place him in a cage?"

Analysts say the trial indicated that the military understood the profound changes that led to Mubarak’s ouster.

"The trial was the first indication that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces deals with what happened in Egypt as a revolution," said Emad Gad, an analyst with the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

The military, he told AFP, "dealt with the revolution up to now as though it were merely a reform movement, that ended the inheritance scenario," referring to the belief the Mubarak intended to pass on power to his son Gamal.

The trial, he added, gave more weight to groups that do not want a religious state in confronting Islamists whom (the ruling generals) tried to use for support in its inclination to avoid Mubarak’s trial.

The military, he added, was also placed in a difficult position after Islamists were outraged by the suggestion that it would be willing to accept binding outlines of a constitution before it was drafted.

The Islamists fear such a document may imperil an article in the old constitution that makes Islam the main basis of laws, and they want the constitution drafted by a parliament in which they hope to have influence.

A rally organized by hardline Salafi groups and the Muslim Brotherhood last week attracted hundreds of thousands in a show of force in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

 

TAGGED:
Share This Article
Leave a comment