Why Did Egypt Revolt?: The Facts Through the Fact Finders (Part II)

Mubarak and his crew are going to be retried again.  Either acquittal, which is not likely, or a stiffer sentence, which could be capital punishment.  The decision is a legal anomaly.  It subjects the defendant(s) to retrial for the same charges in which a legal decision was already rendered.  But revolutions are not known for adhering to recognizable legal procedures.

Mubarak, his two sons, his former interior minister and others associated with the fallen regime, are still facing charges including allowing their security forces and "baltagiahs" (thugs) to kill peaceful protestors.

The recent Report of the Fact-Finding Commission of the prestigious Egyptian jurist, Adel Qura, has found those charges to be credible.  The order of an Egyptian appeals court, issued on January 13, 2013, for a retrial reflects the seriousness in which the Qura report is held.

In Part I of this series on that report, this blog dealt with the role of the social media and public information in influencing the events of the first 18 days of the Egyptian Revolution (January 25 to February 11, 2011).  Now Part II deals with the issue of what the Commission describes as "Shooting with Live Ammunition and Death by Being Run-Over by Vehicles."

The Commission confirms that as of January 25, 2011, police forces began using live ammunition against peaceful protestors in Suez, the city for which the Suez Canal is named.  It goes on to state that the illegal and inhuman practice soon spread to nearly all of the other Egyptian provinces.  In particular, the Fact-Finders named Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Ismailia, Dakahliah, Qaliubiah, Gharbiha, Sharkiah, Faiyoum, Beni Suef, Assiut, Aswan, and Sinai North.  There are 27 provinces (called Governorates) in which Egypt is administratively divided.

On the matter of death-by-vehicles, the Report states that armored police vehicles were intentionally sent to run over protestors for the purpose of killing or injuring them.  It presented visual evidence on these actions recorded by TV and by networks of social communication media.  In one such recording, a police car is shown veering in the direction of a protestor who was flung to the ground by that vehicular action.  Another similar recording shows another police vehicle backing up against another demonstrator.  The victim was killed.

A third security vehicle with diplomatic license plates was shown speeding towards Tahrir Square and ploughing into throngs of demonstrators, cutting down whoever was in its way.

The Fact-Finders found two such instruments of death parked behind two police stations in the greater Cairo area.  Those vehicles were discovered being dismantled in order to hide their identities.  But the investigators were able to record finger-prints found on the bodies of those vehicles.

Neither the Traffic Department nor the Customs Department could verify the owners of the vehicles.  But the Report referred to an emissary from the U.S. Embassy in Egypt who had filed a report on one of those vehicles as having been stolen from the Embassy.

The Fact-Finders were informed by the Ministry of Health that as of February 20, 2011, the total number of casualties resulting from those practices had reached 384 fatalities and 6467 injured citizens.  Since the tally of fatalities based on reporting by all provinces had reached 846 by February 16, 2011, the Qura Report disputed the veracity of the lower figure.  On that basis, it confirmed that at least 846 deaths had occurred.

The Report also confirmed that among those who met with death in the police ranks were 26 officers and police recruits during the period from January 25 to February 9, 2011.

Summing up their findings on this sector of the Report, the Fact-Finders concluded that:

• The Police has unnecessarily used lethal force in a failed attempt to disperse the demonstrators;
• That the orders to use those methods had to be authorized by the highest level of authority as decreed by standing directives to the Ministry of Interior;
• That the right of protestors to peacefully assemble and voice their grievances is a basic human right as based on the Egyptian Constitution and laws, as well as international law including UN resolutions.  The Report thus cited Egyptian Law No. 109 of 1971 which, in Article 102, provides that:

"A Police Officer should only resort to force to carryout his assigned duties if the use of force is the only method left for him to fulfill his duties."

Only the Interior Minister could exercise that authority, under the Egyptian President giving the green light for such draconian measures.

Thus the grand stage for retrying Mubarak and those who had basked in the sun of his autocratic role was set, although the outcome remains unclear.

This series shall continue in future weeks with Part III.