Mubarak verdict called a farce

CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate yesterday denounced the verdicts in ousted President Hosni Mubarak's trial as a "farce" and demanded a retrial, in a statement on Twitter.
Protesters, angered at the outcome of the trial, clashed with police outside the building where the verdicts were read yesterday, witnesses said.
Protesters threw rocks at riot police standing guard outside the building and the security forces gave chase, witnesses said.
Judge Ahmed Refaat sentenced Mubarak to life in prison yesterday after convicting him of complicity in the murder of protesters during the uprising that ousted him last year.
Mubarak, propped up on a hospital stretcher and wearing dark sunglasses, heard the verdict with a stony expression. Also given a life term for the killings was the 84-year-old former Interior Minister Habib Al-Adly, while six former police commanders were acquitted.
Soha Saeed, the wife of one of about 850 people killed in the street revolt that toppled Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011, shouted: "I'm so happy. I'm so happy." Some people inside the court who had wanted a death sentence scuffled with guards, decrying the Mubarak-era judiciary. "The people want the judiciary cleansed!" they chanted.
One man held up a sign calling for Mubarak to be executed, others chanted for a death sentence.
Mubarak whose helicopter landed at Tora prison in Cairo after he was sentenced to life in prison wept and refused to leave the aircraft, a security official said. "He was crying and would not get out of the helicopter. Security officials spent some time convincing him to get out," the official said. "He's now convinced and will be entering the prison shortly."
A senior lawyer for Mubarak's defense team said the strongman, who was taken to the Cairo prison after the hearing, will appeal the sentence.
“Dr. Mohammed Mursi, the presidential candidate, describes the verdict as 'a farce’ and demands a retrial with the necessary evidence for a just punishment,” the Brotherhood said on its official Twitter account. The group called for mass protests after the court sentenced Mubarak and his interior minister to life in prison but acquitted six security chiefs in the deaths of protesters last year.
Asked if the Islamist movement would be taking to the streets across Egypt in protest, senior Brotherhood official Mahmud Ghozlan said: “Yes. If the police commanders are innocent, then who killed the protesters.”
Rights groups said the acquittal of six security chiefs fails to deliver justice and could continue to encourage a culture of police impunity.
Mubarak's sentence "is a significant step toward combating long-standing impunity in Egypt" but the security chiefs' acquittal "leaves many still waiting for full justice," Amnesty International said in a statement.
"Many see the acquittal of all the senior security officials as a sign that those responsible for human rights violations can still escape justice," Amnesty said.
"The verdict fails to deliver justice, it fails to deter police from future abuse and it comes against the backdrop of acquittals in police trials," Heba Morayef, Cairo-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, said.
"Today's verdict will continue to protect the impunity of the Interior Ministry for violence against protesters," she said.
Corruption charges against Mubarak's sons Alaa and Gamal were dropped due to the expiry of a statute of limitations, and the former president was acquitted in one of the graft cases.
"Every law student has heard of the statute of limitations, yet prosecutors conveniently forgot about this in referring Gamal and Alaa Mubarak to trial," Morayef said.
Egypt's Ahmed Shafiq, a former military man who will compete with the Muslim Brotherhood in a run-off presidential vote this month, said yesterday that the jailing of Mubarak proved no one was above the law.
"We do not have a right to comment on judicial rulings but this verdict indicates that no one is above questioning if the law requires," said Shafiq, who has described Mubarak as a role model on his official Facebook page.
However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused to comment yesterday's court ruling.
"That is up to the Egyptian people and their judicial system and their government," Clinton told reporters during a visit to the Arctic city of Tromsoe in Norway, part of her nine-day tour of Scandinavia, the Caucasus and Turkey.

FROM: AGENCIES