Calm prevailed on Sunday in Tahrir Square following mass rallies on Saturday to protest the rulings issued in the trial of toppled leader Hosni Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six high-ranking Interior Ministry officials.
However, hundreds of protesters were in the square and traffic remained blocked. Thirteen tents were pitched in the square.
Around 150 protesters marched through the streets surrounding Tahrir and then returned to the square.
Several political and revolutionary groups and individuals had declared at midnight their intention to stage a sit-in protesting the court rulings that cleared all six Interior Ministry officials of killing protesters.
Adly and Mubarak were handed down life sentences for failing to stop the killings.
The protesters said the sit-in would continue until all the main demands of the 25 January revolution are fulfilled.
Protesters and passers-by discussed the situation.
Protesters were convinced of the necessity of taking to the square again to suspend the presidential election, form a presidential council of candidates excluded from the election and independents, purge the media and judiciary of corruption, and form revolutionary courts to publically try former regime figures.
However, others saw the trial as one of the revolution’s gains, as Mubarak is the first Egyptian president to stand trial and be imprisoned. They called for calm until the runoff election concludes, saying the presidential election marks the beginning of the democratic path and the improvement of Egyptians’ living conditions.
Protesters chanted slogans demanding justice and the application of the Political Isolation Law that Parliament passed, which would disqualify former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, who is running in the runoff elections.
Meanwhile, barriers are still located at the square’s entrances and traffic police are diverting the traffic to avoid congestion. The popular committees who had been taking care of traffic yesterday had disappeared.
