Mubarak Trial Carries Many Uncertainties for Nervous Egypt

July 28, 2011

Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak (File)

Egypt’s 18-day revolution was mostly peaceful. But as the huge daily protests began to threaten to bring down the government, police and troops reacted with violence.

By the time Mr. Mubarak handed over power to a military council, anger was running high. And it still is.

The anger spilled over into a violent clash July 23rd between supporters of the interim military government and protesters who say reforms are not happening quickly enough.

But state media quote Egypt's deputy justice minister as saying the trial will begin August 3, and be held at Cairo's convention center.

Those protesters marched out from the ongoing sit-in at Tahrir Square, the center of the revolution, where emotions still run high.

“There is a lot of things to be judged, a lot of things for those people to be convicted for, but there is nothing at all," said a protester. "They are just delaying the trials. Delay, delays, delays.”

"We didn’t see justice," said another. "My friends die here but we didn’t see justice."

There is speculation the trial might be postponed because Mr. Mubarak has been ill.

But analysts say that would be a mistake. Professor Saad Eddin Ibrahim has written about Egyptian society for decades and was jailed several times for speaking out against the Mubarak regime.