The photo of former Shura Council Speaker Safwat al-Sherif wearing a white suit and cap — the official prisoner uniform — appears on the front pages of most dailies, attesting to the end of an era. Earlier this month, ousted president Hosni Mubarak, his two sons and long-serving protégés including Chief of Staff Zakaria Azmy and People’s Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour, as well as Sherif, were detained on grounds of myriad allegations including illicit profiteering and killing protesters. The independent daily Al-Shorouk cites an official source estimating his wealth at LE29 billion.
As for Mubarak, the state-owned Al-Akhbar runs half a page on his daily routine at the Sharm el-Sheikh hospital where he is being held in custody and regularly questioned. The 82-year-old begins his day with dawn prayers which he usually performs while seated or lying on his back in bed. Then, he takes a sleeping injection. At 11 am he wakes up. “The first thing he does after taking his medicine and being examined by doctors is to ask about his grandson Omar. He calls him up and chats with him for some time,” says Al-Akhbar.
Suzanne Mubarak comes from her room in the same suite to spend the day with her husband. She attends the questioning sessions and sometimes yells at prosecutors, accusing them of not being understanding enough of Mubarak’s health. The paper goes on to say Mubarak became furious after learning that Roqayya al-Sadat, daughter of Mubarak’s predecessor Anwar Sadat, filed a complaint accusing him of involvement in the 1981 assassination of her father.
Again in Al-Akhbar, editor Yasser Rizk suggests that the 25 January revolution was inevitable and if it had not broken out in January, it would have in May. “There were indications that Mubarak was planning to leave power in May 2011, probably on his 83rd birthday, and hold early elections so that Gamal could move smoothly to the [presidential] palace,” says Rizk.
“The military establishment expected the crisis to occur in May when people would take to the streets to protest hereditary succession… The police were expected not to be able to suppress the protests. Hence, the military would have to get involved to maintain public order. Based on that scenario, our armed forces prepared to act.”
The revolution occurred ahead of time for two reasons, says Rizk: the scandalous vote rigging that marred the last parliamentary elections, and the Tunisian revolt which toppled former president Zein al-Abedine Ben Ali.
Rizk contends that Mubarak was adamant about ceding power to his son years ago but the military kept him from doing so. Rizk claims that Mubarak wanted his son to take over in 2005, but received a subtle warning message from the armed forces saying: “We will not accept hereditary succession in Egypt.” Rizk also claims that the defense minister and head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Mohamed Hussein Tantawi spearhead the military’s resistance to Gamal Mubarak’s ascendancy to power.
“Chief of Staff Tantawi never minced his words or tried to be diplomatic. This is not his personality and this is not the style of the institution he belongs to and leads,” says Rizk, who goes on to suggest that Tantawi did not only oppose Gamal’s rise but became an outspoken critic of Gamal-appointed ministers. At this point it is hard to tell whether Rizk’s words are genuine or part of a campaign to flatter Tantawi, who came under sharp criticism in recent weeks after the military allegedly committed human rights violations against civilian protesters.
