Egypt's newspapers on Tuesday focus on the ongoing criminal trial of Hosni Mubarak.
Prosecutors on Tuesday accused the ousted president, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six of his security aides of premeditated murder for ordering the killing of protesters during last January's uprising. The prosecutors demanded the highest penalty for the defendants.
State-run Al-Ahram adds that one of the lawyers accused Omar Suleiman, the former intelligence chief under Mubarak, and Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ruling military council, of perjury. The lawyer said that during investigations, Adly stated he was in contact with the former president and informed him that the situation was out of control, and that four people had been killed in Suez with rubber shotgun pellets.
Al-Wafd, the liberal Wafd Party mouthpiece, leads with a report on how family members of those killed and injured during the revolution want the death penalty for Mubarak. The newspaper adds that the former president armed 1,600 police officers and soldiers to kill the protesters, and planned to hand the country on a silver platter to his son Gamal.
Al-Wafd also covers the lawsuit against prominent Coptic businessman Naguib Sawiris, which accuses him of sedition and contempt of religion. Sawiris had posted on his Twitter account a cartoon depicting Mickey Mouse with a Salafi-style beard and Minnie Mouse with a niqab, or face veil.
Lawyer Mamdouh Ismail, a member of the Lawyers Syndicate, along with 17 others stated that the businessman deliberately insulted Islam, Islamic attire and Muslim figures, Al-Wafd says. The paper adds that Sawiris' stance contradicts Article 2 of the constitution, and that his stance against the veil insults Islam as the country's religion.
Independent Al-Shorouk's headlines on Mubarak's trial and the accusations of perjury leveled at Suleiman and Tantawi resemble those in state-owned newspapers. The paper reports on the statements of lawyer Khaled Abu Bakr, who represents Mosaab al-Shaer, a man shot with 14 rubber shotgun pellets during the uprising and is currently being treated in Germany. Abu Bakr said that in his investigations, he learned from a witness that Adly had said to Central Security Forces head Ahmed Ramzy during the uprising, "I promised Gamal I will finish this!"
Al-Shorouk also quotes Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim as saying that his ministry will not pay for politicians' mistakes and the police are meant to protect the people, not the rulers. He said the law has "sharp teeth" and that thugs will be shot no matter what.
Ibrahim added that the Interior Ministry is monitoring calls for "demonstration and sabotage" launched recently on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. He said such calls are inciting people to riot and damage important buildings around Tahrir Square on 25 January.
Egypt's papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party
