Mubarak’s verdict may regroup voters in presidential run-off

THE verdicts issued on Saturday for Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, ex-interior minister Habib Adli and six others are very likely to lead to regrouping of voters for the two candidates in the presidential run-off slated for later this month.Mubarak and Adli were given life terms, while his two sons Alaa and Gamal, six aides of Adli were acquitted, announced Ahmed Refaat, presiding judge of the Cairo Criminal Court. The sentences were handed down as Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood ( MB)’s candidate Mohamed Morsi and ex-prime minister Ahmed Shafiq prepare to contest in the run-off in mid-June.Refaat said Mubarak and Adli were condemned because of ‘refrain.’ “Refrain means if they did not order to kill the protestors, they refrained from ordering to stop this act as a part of their responsibility,” Noha Bakr, political science professor at the American University in Cairo, told Xinhua.In fact, “The judge’s legal justification for his overall ruling of insufficient evidences practically guarantees Mubarak and Adli’s acquittal on appeal,” state-run al-Ahram newspaper’s website reported. When announcing the verdicts, Refaat said all evidences were free of material ones to satisfy the court and that there was no certainty to say they committed crimes of murder.Yet, legal experts argue that the final verdict was more political than judicial, as the judge was about to acquit Mubarak and Adli, but eventually intended to calm the political opinions down even though they are acquitted in the appeal. But still, protestors said they were not satisfied with the acquittal for Alaa and Gamal.The long-awaited verdicts immediately sparked an outcry among key political powers, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and defeated presidential candidates and many citizens.On Saturday evening, thousands flocked to the iconic Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, the epicenter of last year’s anti-government protests, to express their opposition to the court’s decisions. Mohamed Ghazlan, spokesperson of the MB, said “the verdict which acquitted the leaders of the police and wasted the martyrs’ blood and handicapped justice is a shock for all Egyptians.” He added that the MB would participate in the protests with all Egyptians against the verdict.