An ailing, 83-year-old Hosni Mubarak, lying ashen-faced on a hospital bed inside a metal defendants cage with his two sons standing protectively beside him in white prison uniforms, pleaded innocent to charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of protesters at the start of his historic trial on August 3. The spectacle, aired live on state television, was the biggest humiliation for Egypt’s former president since his ouster nearly six months ago after an 18-day uprising. But it went a long way to satisfy one of the key demands that has united protesters since February 11, the day he was toppled.
It was the first time Egyptians have seen Mubarak since February 10, when he gave a defiant TV address refusing to resign. In the courtroom, a prosecutor read the charges against Mubarak – that he was an accomplice along with this then-interior minister in the “intentional and premeditated murder of peaceful protesters” and that he and his sons received gifts from a prominent businessman in return for guaranteeing him a lowered price in a land deal with the state.
“Yes, I am here,” Mubarak said, raising his hand slightly when the judge asked him to identify himself and enter a plea. “I deny all these accusations completely,” he said.
Outside the police academy, protesters watching the proceedings on a giant screen shouted in derision, “Then who did it?” Some waved their shoes at the screen in a show of contempt.
The trial came only after heavy pressure by activists on the now ruling military — one of the few demands that still unites the disparate protest movement. It answers, at least partially, a growing clamor in Egypt for justice not only for the wrongs of Mubarak’s authoritarian regime but also for the violent suppression of the largely peaceful uprising, in which 850 protesters were killed.