The testimony of Egypt's top general in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak was postponed Sunday after the military leader said he was too busy with national security matters, including repercussions from a mob attack on the Israeli embassy over the weekend.

The much anticipated testimony of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the country's ruling military council and a confidant of Mubarak's for decades, was rescheduled for Sept. 24. The delay came less than two days after protesters broke into the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Three people died and more than 1,000 were injured when demonstrators clashed with security forces.

The incident raised questions over the ability of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to control unrest in a country increasingly angry over the slow pace of political and economic reform since Mubarak fell from power in February.  

Many Egyptians have been skeptical that Tantawi and his chief of staff, Sami Anan, would ever testify at Mubarak's trial. The former president is charged with complicity to commit murder in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during last winter's revolution. When the general didn't appear in court Sunday, it seemed to confirm suspicions.  

“Now we are waiting to see if Tantawi and Anan will testify and what they will say, but any further postponements will surely raise mine and other people’s concerns. SCAF shouldn’t expect anything but rage if they don’t testify,” said Mohamed Maher, a 31-year-old dentist.

The prosecution is counting on Tantawi’s testimony to rescue its case after nine prosecution witnesses last week failed to provide evidence that Mubarak and his interior minister, Habib Adbli, ordered the crackdown that left more than 800 people dead between Jan. 25 and Feb. 11. But many analysts doubt the general will say anything to damage his former boss.

Tantawi, who was Mubarak’s defense minister for 20 years before taking over the country’s rule on Feb. 11, said in a televised speech in May that during the revolution, SCAF members met and decided against shooting protesters. Civil rights lawyers have suggested that those comments indicated that the Mubarak regime did hand down orders for security forces to shoot protesters. 

“I’m very pleased that Judge Refaat stood strong and set new dates for Tantawi and Anan to personally show up for testimony in court,” Tamer Gomaa, a lawyer representing families of 11 killed during the revolution, told Los Angeles Times.

Judge Refaat earlier decided to ban any media coverage of testimony by Tantawi, Anan and former Vice President Omar Suleiman.   

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt's ruling military council. Credit: Reuters

Thousands of Egyptians returned to Tahrir Square on Friday, calling on the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces to fulfill the demands of the revolution that overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak.   

Organized by the National Front for Change and April 6th Youth Movement, the rally, which was boycotted by the nation's main Islamist parties, was the first in Tahrir since a sit-in in July and early August that lasted for more than three weeks and made similar demands.

Participating movements agreed on a list of eight demands, including an end to military tribunals for civilians, a commitment from the ruling council to a time frame for transferring power to a civilian government, and amending the elections law ahead of the vote for a new parliament in November. The protest slogan was "Correcting the path of the revolution."

With some of the demonstrators' demands unchanged from what protesters have been seeking since toppling Mubarak’s regime on Feb.11, Friday's rally reflected a growing dismay over Egypt's political future, the pace of reforms and the ruling generals.

"SCAF had everyone's support in February and they should have taken a number of revolutionary steps to reorganize Egypt, but they didn't," said Sayed Naguib, a 37-year-old owner of a shop selling communications accessories. "SCAF members and the military in general were the best of the worst in Mubarak's regime, but it seems to me that they still have Mubarak's way of slow thinking."

Naguib and others in Tahrir said the parliamentary elections law put in place by the ruling generals after the revolution will easily allow remnants of the dissolved ruling National Democratic Party to win new legislative seats. 

"A distorted parliament will have severe negative effects on the country's future," said Nasser Sami, another protester.

Rights advocates claim that 12,000 civilians have been sentenced by military tribunals after the council took over the country and arrested bloggers, activists and protesters. The military has promised to end such trials once the 31-year-old emergency laws are abolished, but many activists are skeptical.

"SCAF has yet to announce when emergency laws will be terminated, and we don't know for how long these military trials will continue for. This is not what we carried out our revolution for," Sami said.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Protesters in Tahrir Square on Friday. Credit: AFP

The prospect of convicting former President Hosni Mubarak in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during last winter's revolution has been complicated by the testimony of four high-ranking police officers that supports the toppled leader.

During the trial's third session, which lasted nearly 12 hours Monday, the police officers, including a general and two majors, gave their accounts of the police crackdowns on Jan. 25 and 28, events that are critical to the prosecution's accusations that Mubarak ordered his interior minister, Habib Adli, to shoot protesters.

Although they were called as prosecution witnesses Monday, all four officers -- appearing to recant earlier statements made to prosecutors -- denied that Adli or any of his aides gave direct orders to use live ammunition against protesters.

Tamer Gomaa, a lawyer representing the families of 11 people killed from Jan. 25 to Feb. 11, said he was not surprised.

"All witnesses are still part of the police force, and I wouldn’t have expected them to say anything that would convict their former superiors," he told Babylon & Beyond. "The Jan. 25 revolution was carried out against the former regime and its police forces. Most officers don’t believe that those who were killed during the revolt were martyrs or were even serving their country."

The Egyptian media portrayed the testimony as an embarrassment  for the state.

"The prosecution witnesses turned into defense witnesses," the independent daily Al-Shorouk proclaimed in a front-page headline. The newspaper said the hearing was "a battering for the victims' families".

Gen. Hussein Moussa, who was head of communications at the Interior Ministry’s Central Security division, testified that automatic weapons were provided only to forces protecting the ministry’s headquarters from protesters. Maj. Emad Saied said orders from his superiors stressed "self-control when facing protesters" and treating demonstrators "like officers’ brothers or sons." Capt. Bassem Hassan said no orders were given to shoot protesters with live ammunition.

Another concern for families of those killed during the revolution, as well as activists wanting to see Mubarak and Adli convicted, is continuing disorganization and chaos among the more than 100 civil rights lawyers representing families of the more than 800 people killed during the revolution. Shouting and fistfights in court Monday prompted Judge Ahmed Refaat to abandon the chamber for 45 minutes.

"There are so many [civil rights] lawyers who want to take over the scene without allowing us to work on the case itself," Gomaa said. "In a hearing like today we should have organized ourselves to come up with a set of the best possible questions for the witnesses."

The trial is set to resume Wednesday.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Hosni Mubarak lies on a bed behind bars during his trial's second session Aug.15. Credit: Associated Press

The toppling of President Hosni Mubarak was expected to make life easier for human rights groups and civil organizations, but the groups say the country's new ruling military council is harshly crushing dissent and waging a systematic effort to defame them in the eyes of the Egyptian public.

On Monday, 36 rights organizations sent a joint complaint to the U.N’s Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights about a “smear campaign” organized by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces and its appointed interim-government.

“The undersigned organizations wish to whole-heartedly condemn authorities’ manipulation of the media to publicize investigations into associations accused of receiving U.S funding without identifying the groups in question,” the organizations said in a statement.

Last month, SCAF member Major Gen. Hassan el Roweini said the April 6th Youth and Kefaya movements –- oppressed during Mubarak’s reign -– were receiving funds from foreign countries to serve an outside hidden agenda. His assertion, playing into widespread suspicions of foreign interference, was followed by a state security investigation into the funding of unnamed civil society organizations. 

Egyptian regulations prohibit any civil society association of receiving foreign funds without the Ministry of Social Solidarity’s approval.

When asked for a response to the organizations’ complaint, SCAF member Gen. Mamdouh Shahin told Babylon & Beyond it is “not SCAF's responsibility to reply to these allegations”.

But in an apparent bid to stem criticism of its tactics, the military this week acquitted and released 40 activists detained by military courts, state newspaper Al Ahram reported. 

The conflict symbolizes the main impediments facing Egyptians’ aspiration for democracy. Advocates like Ahmed Ragheb of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre believe that the active presence of rights associations is needed to monitor SCAF until Egypt holds presidential and parliamentary elections.

“It’s either we turn a blind eye to any violations carried out (by SCAF) and become another autocratic regime, or maintain our watchdog status as the only way for reaching democracy,” he says.

The Egyptian army was untouchable during Mubarak’s reign. No one dared to publish anything about the military. 

On April 11, blogger Mikael Nabil was sentenced to three years in jail by a military court after criticizing the army in one of his blogs.

Bahey Eldin Hassan, director of the Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies, said SCAF is cracking down on rights organizations because of their role in “exposing a number of violations carried out by military police like the use of force in dispersing sit-ins and subjecting female protesters to virginity tests, as well as the trying of thousands of civilians in front of military courts”.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: A July protest demanding an end to military-court trials for civilians. Credit: Associated Press

A document drafted by the leading cleric at Al Azhar institution, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, to guide the writing of a new constitution for a "modern democratic state" has been widely endorsed by Egypt's liberal and secular politicians.

The consensus was announced during a meeting that was held under the auspices of Azhar’s top cleric Ahmed el Tayeb on Wednesday and attended by nine potential presidential candidates, representatives of 22 political parties and a number of intellectuals and religious leaders.

"Those who attended the meeting at Al Azhar, agreed that Azhar’s document is a general guiding frame for the constitutional committee,” said presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei. Presidential aspirant Ayman Nour described the document as seeking to unite "political forces over the values and principles of a modern democratic and constitutional state."

Initially brought to light by Tayeb in June, the document consists of 11 principles, proposing that Egypt has an Islamic identity but is committed to a "civil and democratic state governed by law and the constitution." The principles include articles calling for respect of freedom of opinion, faith and for human rights.

Azhar’s document comes in the middle of a fierce split between Islamists and liberals over the introduction of supra-constitutional principles that would be binding on the new parliament in its writing of a constitution after November elections. Islamists, led by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Freedom party, are expected to win a sizable percent of Parliament, raising fears among liberals that without guiding principles the constitution would lean heavily toward a religious state.

Tayeb said that the Azhar's draft, which is more moderate that many Islamists would support, is a code of honor that all parties should commit to voluntarily: "Some people view the [draft] as an attempt to undermine parliament’s freedom in writing the new constitution," said Tayeb. "But the need for us to overcome our differences and reach common ground on this constitution can’t be more urgent."

The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice representative, Mohamed Morsi, said that no one disagreed over the content or the meanings of the Azhar document. But a more extreme sect of Islamists, Salafis, have previously rejected the idea of any constitutional suggestions or recommendations before electing the new parliament.

An Azhar spokesman has said that the Ministries’ Cabinet and the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces, which previously expressed willingness to adopt constitutional principles if agreed on by all national powers, have received drafts of the document.

--Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Al Azhar's grand cleric Ahmed el Tayeb. Credit: AP

One man has been killed and nearly 20 Islamist militants, suspected in recent attacks on a police station and a natural gas pipeline supplying Israel, have been arrested in recent days in a sweeping military operation in the Sinai Peninsula.

More than 1,000 Egyptian soldiers have been taking part in Operation Eagle against  armed extremist groups believed to be responsible for the recurring assaults in the peninsula since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. The Sinai pipeline has been targeted five times over the last six months. On July 30, two police officers and three civilians were killed when 100 masked gunmen riding motorcycles and carrying flags with Islamic slogans attacked a police station in the city of Arish.

A security source, who spoke to state media on condition of anonymity, said militants were arrested Tuesday shortly before planning to bomb the pipeline near the city of Arish. On Monday, the first day of the operation, the state news agency MENA reported that Palestinians and Egyptians were captured and one gunman was killed in a raid on militant hideouts.

Concerns over the security situation in Sinai intensified on Aug. 2 when a group referring to itself as Al Qaeda's wing in Sinai called for the creation of an Islamic caliphate in the peninsula. Authorities later claimed that the jihadists responsible for attacks on the Arish police station and the pipeline were linked to Al Qaeda’s Sinai wing.

The unrest in the region has political and tribal overtones. Many Egyptians are opposed to Cairo selling natural gas to Israel, especially following disclosures that Mubarak's regime gave the Jewish state below-market prices.  The matter has been further complicated by Egypt's long battle with Bedouin tribes who smuggle weapons, cars, food, building materials and other items through tunnels and into the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip.  

A 1979 peace accord between Egypt and Israel limits the number of Egyptian soldiers in Sinai. But on Monday, Israeli public radio announced that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted an Egyptian request to deploy extra forces in the troubled peninsula.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Army soldiers deployed in Sinai for Operation Eagle. Credit: Reuters

Political leaders and international human rights groups have condemned Egypt's ruling military council for arresting a popular activist and charging her with insulting the military and inciting violence against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces.  

Asmaa Mahfouz was interrogated by a military prosecutor for several hours Sunday before she was released on bail set at 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,365). No trial date has been set. The case prompted presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei to urge the military to stop its crackdown on activists, given that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, who is charged with murdering protesters, is standing trial in a civilian court.

“Military trials for young activists, while Mubarak and Co. stand before civil courts, is a legal farce. Don’t abort the revolution,” the Nobel laureate wrote on his Twitter account.

A recent survey by the National Center for Social & Criminological Research estimated that 3 million children are living on the streets of Egypt, state newspaper Al Ahram reported Thursday.

Social injustice during former President Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule is one of the main causes behind the explosion of the street children phenomenon, according to the report. Al Ahram quotes the study as stating that crimes, violence and sexual abuse are common among street children. Fifty-six percent of the crimes committed by these youngsters are theft-related and 13.9% are related to begging.

Shantytowns, built on the outskirts of Cairo to accommodate millions of Egyptians who migrated from the Nile Delta and the south for better lives in the capital, are also a direct cause of the street children. “Slums, which contain around 11 million Egyptians struggling with poverty and dismal quality of services are strongly related to the street children problem,” wrote sociology Professor Azza Karim, who oversaw the study.

The study concluded by stating that 150,000 street children resort to abusing drugs as a way of facing violence, hunger and rough living conditions. Child homelessness has been a problem for years and has ben depicted in a number of Egyptian films depicting an unforgiving world of teenage pregnancy and the smuggling of human organs.  

Media reports previously claimed that street children were recruited by members of Mubarak’s former regime to challenge the revolution and fight against demonstrators in Tahrir Square. But members of the newly formed group of activists said that many street children found safe haven and a sense of identity in the square by joining the Jan. 25 revolution. 

--Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Street children sleeping in the streets of Cairo. Credit: Dostor.org

 
Legal experts and citizens alike were concerned as well as bemused by the chaotic and unorganized antics of lawyers representing families of martyrs during former President Hosni Mubarak’s trial on charges that he ordered the shooting of protesters last winter.

The 30 or so lawyers representing families made a spectacle Wednesday, racing each other to address the court’s judge while showing a lack of eloquence and jurisprudence during the nationally televised hearing. They at times resembled a scrum on a rugby field. So much so that many Egyptians believed that Mubarak's veteran defense lawyer, Farid el Deeb, stood out as more polished and erudite.

One lawyer yelled that Mubarak was a serial killer. Another grabbed a microphone and claimed that Mubarak, who had been wheeled into the courtroom in a hospital bed, was not Mubarak at all. The lawyer said Mubarak died in 2004 and that the man on trial was an imposter in an elaborate scheme by outside forces.  

“The main problem is that the hearing was attended by many victims’ lawyers, who don’t have the necessary experience to deal with such case. If this issue isn’t rectified before the second hearing then this will hinder any chances of indicting Mubarak,” said Tarek Awady, a lawyer in the Egyptian Appeals Court, told Babylon & Beyond.

Essam Sultan, a lawyer and deputy head of Al Wasat Party, described the performance of lawyers calling for victims’ civil rights on Wednesday as shameful. Councilor Zakariya Abdul Aziz, former head of Egypt’s judges’ union, said that there had been no coordination among the attorneys.

Awady said that a group of prominent lawyers is attempting to take over the cases of victims' families from some of their inexperienced and grandstanding colleagues. “This is the biggest trial in Egypt’s history, and the whole country will be depressed and lose confidence if we can’t indict Mubarak through lawyers who know how to parse all evidence and prove his guilt,” Awady said. 

Mubarak, whose visit to court was his first public appearance since his ouster Feb. 11, is charged with conspiring with former Interior Minister Habib Adli to kill protesters during the Jan. 25 revolution. He also faces allegations of financial corruption and abuse of power. He pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz disputed Mubarak's right to attend the hearing while lying in bed, saying that Mubarak looked in good enough health to have been able to sit on a wheelchair. Mubarak reportedly has heart problems, but many believed his bed scene was an attempt to gain pity and avoid prison.

Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, who appeared next to him in court, are charged with illegal gains and using their father's power to benefit themselves. Their trial was adjourned until Aug. 15.

RELATED:

Mubarak: Avoiding 'victor's justice' in Egypt

Egypt mesmerized by Mubarak appearance in court

Egypt puts Mubarak, bedridden and caged, on trial

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Hosni Mubarak speaking from his bed in the defendants' cage in a Cairo courtroom. Credit: Associated Press

Tanks and riot police swept into Tahrir Square, tearing down tents and chasing away protesters in a dramatic ending to a three-week sit-in by demonstrators who had disrupted traffic in downtown Cairo and exasperated the nation's ruling military council.

The storming of the square Monday afternoon, the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, started when 10 tanks broke through barb-wired fences held up by protesters at each of the square's entrances. The tanks were followed by hundreds of military police officers, who scattered several hundred protesters camping in the square’s central garden.

Protesters briefly resisted by hurling stones at police officers, but their last stand was short-lived as they were outnumbered by officers, who used electric prods and fired blank ammunition. Military forces cleared away all banners and stages and Tahrir was opened to traffic for the first time since July 8.

A number of protesters were detained. The interim government said in a statement that a “number of thugs were captured” without specifying any figures. No injuries were reported.

The eviction came one day after 26 political parties and activist groups decided to suspend their sit-in during Ramadan. The core of protesters left on Monday were relatives of martyrs killed during the 18-day uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak on Feb.11.

Protesters in Tahrir were calling on the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces to “fulfill the remainder of the revolution’s goals,” including swift trials for members of Mubarak’s toppled regime, higher minimum wages, purging ministries of officials who served under Mubarak and ending military trials for civilians arrested since Feb. 11.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf had earlier responded to the sit-in by reshuffling his Cabinet, appointing new governors and firing more than 600 police officers. Sharaf similarly announced that the trials of Mubarak and his former ministers would be broadcast on state television on Wednesday.

While Mubarak is facing charges of financial corruption and ordering the shooting of protesters during the Jan. 25 revolution, many Egyptians fear the 83-year-old former leader's medical condition might be used as a ploy to avoid a court appearance. Since suffering a heart problem during interrogations in April, Mubarak has been held in custody at a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, where he is reported to suffer from depression.

Sunday hospital officials said Mubarak was still in stable condition and should be able to attend his hearing.

RELATED:

Six dead in assault on Sinai police station

Hosni Mubarak and sons to be tried in Cairo

Activists to sue ruling generals over treason accusations

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Military police advance on Tahrir Square to disperse protesters. Credit: Associated Press

Two weeks into Israel's housing protest, demonstrations are sweeping the country. More than 150,000 people took part in protests nationwide calling for socioeconomic change and demanding "social justice." And what started with the odd tent has become the summer of Israeli discontent.

Young Israelis feel they are victims of the country's strong economy and decades of security-heavy priorities. The Israeli economy boomed, but its young middle class has bombed, caving under price hikes, taxation and increasingly privatized public services such as health, education and child care. The leadership admits there are problems but say protesters' complaints are exaggerated.

The economic trend was no accident, protesters say, but a calculated economic ideology coupled with conservative politics. Decentralizing Israel's economy was necessary but privatization has run amok, critics say, with the government outsourcing its commitments to the majority of its citizens, who now demand government reaffirm its vows to the greater public.

"Re-vo-lu-tion!" cries bounced off walls in Tel-Aviv, Beersheva, Haifa and other towns Saturday night. 

So here's a Revolution 101, an incomplete dictionary to the cousin of the Arab Spring: the Israeli Summer. Naturally, there are millions of possible definitions.

A is for Arabs. It took some time, but Arab citizens of Israel joined the protests. Chronic under-budgeting has left many in the lower rungs of the country's socioeconomic ladder with more than half below the poverty line and a shortage of 60,000 housing units in the sector comprising 20% of Israeli society. A rare opportunity to join a social cause striving to be inclusive, not exclusive.

B is for Babies. Baby products and child care are too expensive, keeping women from professional development and young families in constant debt. Thousands marched with strollers and baby carriages last week, demanding, among other things, work schedules that are better synchronized with child-care calendars so parents can actually work.

C is for Competition. There is none, protesters say, that's why prices are high. 80% of the nation's economy is controlled by a few dozen powerful family empires who prevent real competition.

Six people were killed and more than 20 were injured when armed men attacked a police station in Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula on Friday, security sources told state news agency MENA on Saturday.

About 100 masked gunmen carrying flags with Islamic slogans while riding motorcycles and four-wheel-drive vehicles attempted to storm the police station in the city of Al Arish, MENA reported. Police and military forces fought back for several hours before the attackers retreated.  

A policeman and a military officer, in addition to three civilians standing by near the station, were killed. One of the attackers also died. Shortly after the assault, Al Arish’s military commander told Egyptian state television that those responsible for the attack were connected to Mohammed Dahlan, a former member of the Central Committee for the Palestinian Fatah party. Dahlan denied involvement.

Egyptian authorities announced on Saturday that 15 of the attackers were arrested, including 10 Palestinian nationals. The other five remain unidentified.

The assault was followed by an overnight attack over a cooling system in the Sinai pipeline shipping Egyptian natural gas exports to Israel. Security sources said that the attack, which is the fifth on the pipeline since February, was carried out by gunmen using rocket-propelled grenades. No casualties were reported. The pipeline has been empty of gas since the latest explosion on July 11.

Authorities blamed unnamed saboteurs for the assault. Sinai, where Bedouins often complained of marginalization and lack of opportunities and services under former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule, has become increasingly restive. The region is known for weapons smuggling and has become a rallying point for many Egyptians opposed to their country shipping natural gas to Israel.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: An explosion at the Sinai gas pipeline last month. Credit: AFP