A Kuwaiti team of lawyers who had volunteered to help defend former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak against charges of corruption and killing protesters said they would celebrate the former president's acquittal soon.
Attorney Faisal al-Otaibi told Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai in an interview published Wednesday that he believes Mubarak is innocent of all charges, adding that he has documented evidence that he will submit to the court hearing Mubarak's case.
Mubarak, his two sons Alaa and Gamal, former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six former security officials face charges of involvement in the murder of pro-democracy protesters during the January 2011 revolution, which ended Mubarak's rule in February. Other charges against Mubarak and his sons include corruption related to the country's natural gas deal with Israel.
After hearing the plaintiffs' lawyers, Cairo Criminal Court on Tuesday began hearing the arguments from Mubarak's head defense lawyer, Farid al-Deeb.
Last year's uprising not only sought to overthrow Mubarak, but also to divide Egypt into three states as part of a scheme prepared by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Palestinian faction Hamas, and Iran, Otaibi claimed.
Otaibi said he and other Kuwaiti lawyers had submitted a report to the Egyptian court explaining the scheme, which allegedly began in 2005.
"Activists from Hezbollah had entered Egypt to free their fellows; we can never forget the 19 group members who fled their imprisonment in Egypt on 28 January and arrived in Lebanon in four hours," Otaibi told the paper. "On 25 January, the revolution broke out over deteriorating economic conditions, but after the 28th, unknown elements came into the country that later appeared to be former convicts from Hezbollah."
Despite his claims and belief in Mubarak's innocence, Otaibi said he is not against the revolution, describing it as a domestic issue.
"We have no business in it. May God rest the souls of the martyrs killed, but we believe they were killed by foreign elements," Otaibi said.
Otaibi told the newspaper he is already a well-known lawyer in Kuwait and is not seeking fame by defending Mubarak.
He said he was astonished by the unwelcoming reception he received from Egyptians.
"Why did Egyptians not mention anything about the Egyptian lawyers who came to defend the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in his trial though we, Kuwaitis, had our lands violated, our resources looted, and our girls raped because of that man? We, however, did not get infuriated," he said, adding that Mubarak and his sons had approved the Kuwaiti team's participation.
