Joyful displays in Cairo greet detention of Mubarak

EGYPTIANS CELEBRATED in the streets of Cairo yesterday on learning that ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has been remanded in custody for 15 days and is being questioned by the public prosecutor. In the Arab world, overthrown leaders are commonly summarily executed or exiled but rarely put on trial.

Mr Mubarak (82), who suffered a minor heart attack during interrogation on Tuesday, has been confined in an intensive care ward on the VIP floor of the International Hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. When his health – characterised as “unstable” by state media – allows, he is due to be flown to a hospital near Cairo.

His sons, Alaa and Gamal, were transferred to the capital’s Tora prison, where Mr Mubarak jailed opponents.

A host of senior regime figures, including a prime minister, half a dozen ministers, businessmen and leading lights in the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) have been held there awaiting trial on a variety of charges.

Suzanne Thabet, wife of the former president, has also been questioned about allegations that she embezzled funds from accounts of the Alexandria Library and the Reading for All Festival.

According to Ahram Online, the Mubarak brothers, stripped of their possessions and attired in white jail fatigues, regarded their incarceration with “disbelief”.

Mr Mubarak stands accused of corruption, abuse of power, and ordering the use of deadly force against democracy activists during 18 days of protests that ended his 30-year rule. Between 380 and 800 Egyptians were killed and 5,500 wounded during his crackdown on countrywide protests.

His sons face allegations of profiteering on land sales to individuals and private firms. The younger, Gamal, was seen as being groomed to succeed Mr Mubarak. He chaired the NDP’s policy committee and oversaw the privatisation of Egypt’s public firms and enterprises, a source of wealth to regime-connected entrepreneurs.

The latest CIA estimate of the worth of the Mubarak family is $5 billion; earlier figures put it at from $1 to 70 billion. There is no estimate of the total amount amassed by Mr Mubarak’s entourage and associates. The repatriation of the country’s plundered resources is a principal demand of Egypt’s democracy movement and of millions of Egyptians who steadily grew poorer as Mr Mubarak’s wealthy allies accumulated fortunes.

Hani Shukrallah, editor of Ahram Online, said Egyptians are determined to recover their country’s plundered wealth.

In response to the initiation of legal action against the Mubaraks, Egypt’s Revolutionary Youth Coalition, prime mover of the uprising, announced the suspension of its participation in demonstrations tomorrow on grounds that many demands have been met by the caretaker government. However, the coalition is calling for mass action on April 22nd to press for the release of political prisoners and investigations into violence against protesters in Tahrir Square last weekend. The coalition had called for an indefinite sit-in in the square if no action had been taken against the Mubaraks.