Egypt activist summoned for criticizing military

A prominent Egyptian activist was summoned Monday for questioning by the country’s military rulers over comments criticizing their human rights record.

Hossam el-Hamalawy, 33, said he was ordered to appear before military prosecutors Tuesday after he charged that the head of the military police responsible for reported abuses against activists, He spoke on a popular TV program on a private station. He said the TV presenter, Reem Maged, was also summoned for questioning.

“I have been expecting this for a long time,” el-Hamalawy said.

Egypt’s governing Armed Forces Supreme Council has been coming under increasing pressure from the protest movement and political groups for its management of the transitional period following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11.

Critics say the military has been slow in introducing radical reforms to uproot former regime officials and has often put civilians on military trial.

Reformers also criticize the military council’s reaction to criticism. Two journalists and a potential presidential candidate have been summoned for interrogation for comments about the military.

A large rally was organized Friday named “Egypt’s second revolution,” primarily to push the military to heed the demands of the protesters.

A day before the rally, el-Hamalawy appeared on a TV program called “Our country in our own words,” where he leveled his charges against the new rulers.

“Just like Hosni Mubarak didn’t go down to the streets and shoot the protesters himself, but we are trying him today on charges of killing the revolutionaries, Maj. Gen. Hamdy Badeen is responsible for the military police which is responsible for violations,” he said. He also called for public trials of Mubarak and former regime officials.

Human rights groups say following Mubarak’s ouster Egyptian authorities continue to restrict freedom of assembly, torture detainees and try civilians in military courts.

Widespread silencing of dissent and abuse of detainees were among the issues that led to the popular revolution that toppled Mubarak.

El-Hamalawy, a blogger, was one of the leading figures in the protests. He had a long record of criticizing Mubarak and was arrested during protests in 2000.

Since Mubarak’s ouster, he has been compiling a record of abuses by Mubarak’s security forces, gleaned from documents unearthed after protesters stormed state security offices to prevent them from destroying the files.

In an apparent response to criticism, the military said Monday it is inviting protest groups and youth coalition leaders to a national dialogue “to keep in contact with the people and the revolution youth.” In a message on is official Facebook page, the military called 1,000 youth representatives to a meeting on Wednesday.

Activists insist revolution is far from over in Egypt

That’s the message that a spirited and sizable group of Egyptians are insisting on, upset over the pace and planning of reforms in the nearly four months since President Hosni Mubarak quit amid a wave of popular unrest.

“We’ve waited … and nothing has happened,” said Mehdi Ibrahim, a 43-year-old taxi driver, at a demonstration Friday in Cairo’s famed Tahrir Square. “Mubarak and his men have not been punished for their crimes. We need accountability. In the new Egypt, no one is above the law.”

Friday’s gathering consisted largely of secular, more liberal-minded activists, with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis who had backed Mubarak’s ouster among those who stayed away.

The call for “accountability” was just one of many demands being made at that demonstration, when tens of thousands flocked to the square where the revolution began with hundreds, then thousands, then millions of people demanding change.

Others at the most recent protest urged the creation of a civil presidential council to replace the military council now in charge of Egypt, until democratic elections are held. Some called for the expeditious return of stolen assets, as well as a generally more open society.

Egyptian general admits ‘virginity checks’

One person held up a banner that read “Constitution First,” supporting the sentiment that a new constitution should be drafted and finalized before the September elections, not afterward as is currently planned.

“We need rules and regulations to guide us and to protect individual freedoms and the rights of minorities before the elections,” said Mohamed Badawi, a law student.

Yet not all those who fought to oust Mubarak think all these requests are valid.

Saffa Mohamed, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said he thinks the September poll is good for the country, even if some gripe that it will unfairly benefit more established groups like his and even remnants of the once-ruling National Democratic Party at the expense of upstart political parties.

“Why won’t Egyptians just accept the results of the recent referendum?” he said. “The date … has already been set.”

Egypt’s ruling military council steered clear, as they’d promised, off the demonstration — with one general saying troops did not want to be baited into an altercation.

“We expect there will be provocations from the protesters to pressure us into using excessive force against them,” said a senior Egyptian general, who asked not to be named, ahead of Friday’s protest. “So we are foiling those plans and staying away.”

The general also seemed nonplussed that the activists — most of whom participated in the eight weeks of demonstrations that culminated in Mubarak’s exit and handover of power to the military council — were so critical of the ruling council.

“These are the same members of the armed forces who exercised utmost restraint during the January mass uprisings, defying orders from Mubarak to shoot the opposition activists,” he said.

He urged the mostly young activists to work through existing political institutions and processes to effect change, such as joining political parties or forming new ones, rather than making demonstrations their primary political tool.

The general added, too, that the military council is eager to relinquish power back to civilian authorities.

“The army can’t wait to return to its barracks and do what it does best — protect the nation’s borders,” he said.

Christians Fear Violence as Changes Embolden Islamists

The headline screamed from a venerable liberal newspaper: Coptic Christians had abducted a young Muslim and tattooed her with a cross. “Copts kidnap Raghada!”

“They tied me up with ropes, beat me with shoes, shaved my hair,” Raghada Salem Abdel Fattah, 19, declared, “and forced me to read Christian psalms!”

Like many similar stories proliferating here since the revolution, Ms. Abdel Fattah’s kidnapping could not be confirmed. But for members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, the sensational headline — from a respected publisher, no less — served to validate their fear that the Egyptian revolution had made their country less tolerant and more dangerous for religious minorities. The Arab Spring initially appeared to open a welcoming door to the dwindling number of Christian Arabs who, after years of feeling marginalized, eagerly joined the call for democracy and rule of law. But now many Christians here say they fear that the fall of the police state has allowed long-simmering tensions to explode, potentially threatening the character of Egypt, and the region.

“Will Christians have equal rights and full citizenship or not?” asked Sarkis Naoum, a Christian commentator in Beirut, Lebanon. A surge of sectarian violence in Cairo — 24 dead, more than 200 wounded and three churches in flames since President Hosni Mubarak’s downfall — has turned Christian-Muslim tensions into one of the gravest threats to the revolution’s stability. But it is also a pivotal test of Egypt’s tolerance, pluralism and the rule of law. The revolution has empowered the majority but also opened new questions about the protection of minority rights like freedom of religion or expression as Islamist groups step forward to lay out their agendas and test their political might.

Around the region, Christians are also closely watching events in Syria, where as in Egypt Christians and other minorities received the protection of a secular dictator, Bashar al-Assad, now facing his own popular uprising.

“The Copts are the crucial test case,” said Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch here, adding that facing off against “societal pressures” may in some ways be ever harder than criticizing a dictator. “It is the next big battle.”

But so far, there is little encouragement in the debate over how to address the sectarian strife. Instead of searching for common ground, all sides are pointing fingers of blame while almost no one is addressing the underlying reasons for the strife, including a legal framework that treats Muslims and Christians differently.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the 80 million Egyptians, say the revolution has plunged them into uncharted territory. Suppressed or marginalized for six decades here, Islamists entering politics have rushed to defend an article of the Egyptian Constitution that declares Egypt a Muslim country that derives its laws from Islam. Christians and liberals say privately they abhor the provision, which was first added as a populist gesture by President Anwar el-Sadat. But the article is so popular among Muslims — and the meaning so vague — that even many liberals and Christians entering politics are reluctant to speak out against it, asking at most for slight modifications.

“Our position is that it should stay, but a clause should be added so that in personal issues non-Muslims are subject to the rules of their own religion,” said Naguib Sawiris, a secular-minded Christian tycoon who has started his own liberal party.

He would prefer to remove religion from the laws entirely the way Western separation of church and state does, he said, but that idea could not prevail in Egypt. “Islam doesn’t separate them,” he said.

The most common sparks for sectarian violence, however, come from Egyptian laws dating from the end of the colonial era. One imposes stricter regulations on building churches than on mosques. Christians often look to get around the restrictions by constructing “community centers” with altars and steeples — sometimes provoking Muslim accusations of deceit and Christian charges of discrimination.

The other statute is one the church supports, although not all its parishioners agree: it enforces the Coptic Church’s near-total ban on divorce, even while Egyptian laws on Muslim divorce have grown increasingly liberal.

Often, Christians who want to divorce convert to Islam — and try, after the divorce, to convert back. The law has spawned many rumors of sectarian “kidnappings” to abet or prevent such a conversion for some Coptic women. The rumors ignite most outbreaks of Muslim-Christian violence, including at least three riots since the revolution, and many other controversies. In Ms. Abdel Fattah’s case, the Cairo police said the account was fabricated, while Ms. Abdel Fattah’s mother said her daughter was too traumatized to speak to reporters.

But despite widespread recognition of the law’s role as a catalyst of sectarian violence, the idea that civic law should enforce religious morals is so deeply embedded here that almost no one is proposing to alter the rule.

“It is explosive,” said Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, one of the few groups that advocate changing the law to at least allow the choice of a civil, nonreligious marriage.

When Copts held a weeklong sit-in to demand equal legal treatment, many who attended nonetheless insisted on the preservation of separate, binding laws on Christian marriages. “So no one will be able to get around the religion,” said Yusef George, a 30-year-old businessman. A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist group, said it, too, supported the rule.

Some blame their own church for depending too much on Mr. Mubarak. In a pattern common to Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, Coptic leaders cultivated the patronage of Egypt’s secular dictator, with Coptic Pope Shenouda III trading political support for favors and protection. As in Iraq, with the leader deposed, the Christians felt exposed.

“Coptic rights were reserved to be discussed between Mubarak and the pope,” said Mona Makram Ebeid, a Coptic scholar and former lawmaker who suspended her membership in the liberal Wafd party because its newspaper published the headline about Ms. Abdel Fattah, “and the Copts were left out of it completely.”

Church leaders, in turn, blame Islamic fundamentalists they say the revolution has emboldened. “They don’t want any Copts present in Egypt,” said Father Armia Adly, a spokesman for the church.

The Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, has named a Christian as deputy leader of its new political party. “We are calling for a civil state,” said Essam el-Erian, a prominent leader of the Brotherhood, adding that the group hoped to promote laws derived from the elements of Islamic law common to other great religions, like “freedom of worship and faith, equality between people, and human rights and human dignity.”

Still, many liberals argue the sectarian conflicts prove Egypt should establish a permanent “bill of rights” to protect religious and personal freedoms before holding elections that could give power to an Islamist majority. It would “remove the sense of angst that exists today in Egypt,” said a spokeswoman for Mohamed ElBaradei, a liberal presidential contender.

Egypt Denies EasyJet Access to Cairo

Egyptian authorities are refusing to award low-cost carrier easyJet PLC takeoff and landing slots at Cairo airport unless it overhauls its no-frills approach and offers other services, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Technically, we can fly” to Cairo, EasyJet Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said. But she added the airline still hasn’t been given clearance by Egypt’s aviation authorities. “We’re still talking to authorities on how that will work,” Ms. McCall said.

After the U.K. and Egypt in June last year extended a bilateral agreement, the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority awarded easyJet three weekly landing slots from Oct. 31, 2010. The agreement between the two nations raised the number of weekly slots on the London to Cairo or Alexandria routes to 14 slots from 11, but also capped seating at 4,500 per week in each direction.

The bilateral agreement permits only scheduled U.K. airlines to land at Cairo or Alexandria and were previously split between British Airways—since January a unit of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA—which has seven weekly slots, and Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s British Midland International, which has four. Bmi also borrows three weekly slots from Star Alliance partner EgyptAir.

EasyJet originally had hoped to start flights to Cairo in November but its application for certain time slots was rejected because of its low-cost model, said people familiar with the matter.

In order to gain approval, they said easyJet has been asked to change its no-frills strategy, including having two classes of service instead of one at present, halting the sale of food on board and introducing a member of staff to collect taxes.

The Egyptian civil aviation authority couldn’t be reached for comment.

A spokesman for the U.K. Department for Transport said discussions were still open but those talks had “hit a hiatus” when civil unrest erupted at the start of the year. He said “talks will resume shortly,” adding that the current situation hasn’t meant EgyptAir has been prevented from using its full allocation of slots in the U.K. “Whether they are using them all would be an operational matter for the airline, but they are certainly within their rights to do so,” the DfT spokesman added.

At the moment, the foot-dragging doesn’t pose a problem to the easyJet because of the subdued demand for travel to Egypt since unrest broke out across the North African and Middle Eastern earlier this year. Still, there is hope the government will take a different approach and agreement can be reached soon.

EasyJet already flies to Sharm el Sheikh, Luxor and Hurghada in Egypt, but those airports come under the open-skies agreement and need no approval from the civil aviation body. About 15 million tourists visited Egypt in 2010, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism.

Its unlikely easyJet will adapt its strategy and any drastic change may not go down well with the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority, which granted it the slots ahead of BA and bmi.

In September, the CAA awarded easyJet the additional slots because the carrier would introduce a no-frills service operating from Gatwick, which would lead to the greatest consumer benefit and increase competitive pressure on Heathrow airport services.

Egypt has started offering airlines incentives to fly to the tourism-dependent North African country as it seeks to stimulate demand and stop carriers from slashing capacity.

The incentives come in the form of a reduction in levy charged to airlines that is worth about $5 per passenger, or as payments to carriers for unfilled seats to discourage them from cutting numbers of flights to Egypt or deploying smaller aircraft that carry fewer passengers. The offer started at the beginning of March and is open-ended, meaning the Egyptian government could pay incentives that run to more than $100 million over the course of the year.

Still, while some airlines have restored capacity following civil unrest, capacity remains below peak levels.

EasyJet, which traditionally flies to Europe, inherited the Egypt route when it bought GB Airways about three years ago. Since then, it has tested such routes under its own brand and expanded further into the Middle East, recently launching flights to Jordan.

Egypt admits to forcing “virginity tests”

On March 9, as the Egypt uprising continued to celebrate its success with Hosni Mubarak’s Feb. 11 departure from office, the army attempted to clear Tahrir Square in Cairo of protesters, and about 18 women were caught up and arrested in the security sweep.

About two weeks later, Amnesty International issued a scathing report, claiming Egyptian authorities forced “virginity tests” on the detained women, and this was only after the female protesters had been beaten, given electric shocks and “subjected to strip searches while being photographed by male soldiers.”

At the time, Egypt’s rulers denied the accusations, in no small part because forced “virginity tests” are considered torture by many. Now, Maj. Amr Imam of the Egyptian army has admitted to CNN that the virginity tests were indeed conducted, and he went so far as to defend the practice.

“The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine,” Imam told CNN. “These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs). We didn’t want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren’t virgins in the first place. None of them were (virgins).”

In its report Amnesty International writes:

“20-year-old Salwa Hosseini (said) that after she was arrested and taken to a military prison in Heikstep, she was made, with the other women, to take off all her clothes to be searched by a female prison guard, in a room with two open doors and a window. During the strip search, Salwa Hosseini said male soldiers were looking into the room and taking pictures of the naked women. The women were then subjected to ‘virginity tests’ in a different room by a man in a white coat. They were threatened that “those not found to be virgins” would be charged with prostitution. According to information received by Amnesty International, one woman who said she was a virgin but whose test supposedly proved otherwise was beaten and given electric shocks.”

Most of the arrested women were brought to trial on March 11, and released two days later with one-year suspended sentences, Amnesty writes.

Mubarak stepped down after 30 years in power on Feb. 11 and transferred power to the military after the 18-day popular uprising. At least 846 protesters were killed, and thousands injured, according to a government fact-finding mission.

Brotherhood says won’t force Islamic law on Egypt

The Muslim Brotherhood wants a diverse parliament after elections in September and is not seeking to impose Islamic law on Egypt, the head of the group’s newly formed political party said in an interview.

The Brotherhood, which has emerged as a powerful force after years of repression under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, has said it does not want a parliamentary majority, although rivals see it as well placed for a dominant position.

With secular politicians struggling to mount a challenge, Western investors are concerned about what a shift to an Islamic-leaning government would mean for Egypt, which relies on receipts from Western and other tourists and where tension between Muslims and the Christian minority have flared.

“We only use Islam as the basis of our party … which means that our general framework is Islamic sharia … We don’t issue religious rules in individual cases,” said Mohamed Mursi, head of the Brotherhood’s newly formed Justice and Freedom Party, which will contest the vote.

Liberal Egyptians in particular worry that the group could use for its own ends the second article of Egypt’s constitution, which makes sharia, Islamic law, a main source of legislation.

Egypt’s military rulers suspended the old constitution and introduced an interim one, but that article was unchanged.

Mursi, speaking in the group’s new five-storey headquarters in Mokattem on the outskirts of Cairo, dismissed such worries.

“We want to engage in a dialogue not a monologue,” he said. “The Brotherhood does not seek to control the parliament … We want a strong parliament … with different political forces.”

But he said Islamic law could have a place in a civil state in Egypt, where about 10 percent of the 80 million population are Christians. “Islamic sharia guarantees the rights of all people, Muslims and non-Muslims,” he said.

Mursi said he would stick by the Brotherhood’s pledge not to field a presidential candidate or support any Brotherhood member running, as one has already said he will do.

“The group said it will not field a candidate for the presidency or support one if decides to do so independently,” he said.

NO ECONOMIC PLATFORM YET

The Brotherhood’s new offices are emblazoned with its emblem of crossed swords, a scene unimaginable in the Mubarak era when its members were rounded up in regular sweeps and it worked from two cramped apartments in Cairo.

Mursi, head of the engineering department in Egypt’s Zaqaziq University, led the Brotherhood’s parliament bloc in the 2000-2005 parliamentary session. The Brotherhood used to field its candidates as independents to skirt a ban on its activities.

The Brotherhood, which has spread deep roots in Egypt’s conservative Muslim society partly through a broad social programme, held 20 percent of seats in the 2005-2010 parliament.

It boycotted last year’s vote because of accusations of rigging, which rights groups said had been a feature of all votes under Mubarak.

Mursi said an economic platform had not yet been drawn up as the party, formed in April, was still organising itself.

But some secular politicians and other Egyptians are concerned that women and Christians could be sidelined and that alcohol could be banned, which analysts say is a concern as many tourists to Egypt are non-Muslims wanting a beach holiday and who might be deterred if alcohol is not served.

One in eight Egyptian jobs depend on tourism.

On Christians, he said: “We want everyone to be reassured … that we want to see our Christian brothers elected in parliament … We don’t want one group to control the parliament, neither the Brotherhood nor anyone else.”

Of the party’s 9,000 registered members, he said 100 were Christian and 1,000 were women, adding that the party’s deputy head, Rafik Habib, was a Christian.

When asked if the party could propose a law to prohibit alcohol, Mursi said such changes would be up to parliament to decide, not a single group, such as the Brotherhood.

“The Egyptian constitution is not the constitution of the Brotherhood but … of the Egyptian people,” said Mursi, adding that the constitution “says Egypt’s legislation is based on the principles of sharia, and not its details”.

Downturn deals heavy blow to Cairo shops

The downtown market, which was usually full of customers, has been affected by the political turmoil and financial shortage that have gripped the country, after the January 25 revolution, the owners agree.

Customers as well as Arab tourists have almost stopped buying despite an attractive discounts, that are being offered on all locally made products and souvenirs, complains shop owner Ahmed Farid, who sells leather products in Sherif Pasha Street in central Cairo.

On Thursday, the street witnessed a bloody clash between thugs and street vendors. Many owners had to close their shops lest they should be destroyed or plundered by the thugs, according to eyewintesses.

The shop owners on this famous street have blamed the political unrest, which has been gripping the market since January, for the slowdown in their business.

“There is a severe drop in activity during the peak season, that runs from March until September because of the current political situation,” Adel Ishaq, who owns a watch shop said, adding that he was forced to lay off three employees over the past two months because he could not pay their salaries.

Meanwhile, Fawzi Farid, owner of a souvenir shop in the Khan el-Khalil area of Islamic Cairo, said that the repetitive street rallies and protests had negatively affected the overall commercial and business climate in Cairo.

“These protests and rallies are turning away tourists, who are afraid to come to Cairo,” Fawzi said, accusing the local and foreign media of painting a grim picture of the country, after every massive rally that is being held either on Cairo’s Al Tahrir Square, or el-Hussein Square on Fridays.

“When Arab and foreign tourists watch these news, they think that the whole of Egypt is on fire and become afraid to come,” Farid said.

Ahmed el-Dahan, owner of Kebab shop in the nearby el-Hussein area, said that business has been quite slow recently because only few Arab tourists come to Egypt.

“I have laid off 25 per cent of the restaurant staff,” el-Dahan said, adding he did not know how to keep his Kebab business afloat now that the prices of local meat and vegetables have soared since January.

He said that sometime he turned off the lights during the day.

“Because the business is slow, it is not worth putting the lights on during the day,” el-Dahan added.

“The restaurant used to be filled with Egyptian and Arab clients. Before, Egyptian families and tourist groups used to come en masse to eat my famous Kebab and fattah (a traditional Egyptian dish made from fried garlic rice mixed with dry bread morsels and meat stock). But, now the two-floor shop is almost empty of clients,” he said.

El-Dahan said that although few local clients were still showing up, it was not enough to cope with the daily losses.

“Before January, waiters used to have to turn away customers and now look at us,” he said, adding that the restaurants in Hussein area, which used to receive Egyptians on Thursdays and Fridays, have been hard hit.

Hassan el-Sirgani Junior, who owns a jewellery store in el-Sagha District in Islamic Cairo, also said his business had all but dried up since January” first because of the revolution and then as the pro-democracy protests escalated during the past four months.

“I have had a good season last year. But, I am not expecting to do even better this summer, which is considered the marriage season in Egypt,” el-Sirgani said, adding that many shop owners were afraid that the current downturn would last until the end of the summer season.

Mubarak, former officials fined over Internet outage

Egypt’s state television reported late Saturday evening that a court has fined former President Hosni Mubarak nearly $35 million, former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif $7 million and former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly some $50 million for cutting mobile networks and the Internet during the Egyptian uprising in late January.

According to the television report, the three former top officials were guilty of “causing damage to the national economy.” They have been ordered to pay the fines to the country’s treasury.

Activists here in Cairo praised the ruling, saying it was one more step toward creating an Egypt where corruption is being erased and justice is being served.

“We are excited about the ruling and it shows people that this country is changing for the better,” began Rana Mahmoud, a 33-year-old marketing assistant with a top international firm and one of the thousands who took to the streets in January.

She added that the activist community views the ruling as “a step in the right direction toward better business practices where corruption can see people get in trouble.”

According to the Minister of Communications Maguid Osman, the government is to dole out nearly $17 million to telecom operators over their forced suspension of services during the protests, he told the MENA state-run news agency.

Telecom operators closed their services in late January as the government attempted to quell the masses that had been gathering on a daily basis in Cairo and across the country.

Mubarak denies authorizing killing of protesters

The lawyer for former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Sunday that Mubarak is “very sad and sorry” that he has been accused of ordering live ammunition used against protesters.

Mubarak’s attorney, Fareed El Deeb, spoke with reporters on Sunday afternoon and said the ousted leader is “in very bad health” and suffers from a heart condition along with the return of colon cancer.

The Egyptian Prosecutor General’s office said last week that Mubarak faces several criminal charges, including using his position of authority to illegally acquire wealth and could potentially face the death penalty if found guilty on the charges of authorizing the killing of protesters.

His lawyer denies that Mubarak gave any orders to use force or live ammunition against protesters who were calling for his removal.

According to Minister of Justice Mohamed Abdel-Aziz El-Guindy, an official order requesting the transfer of Hosni Mubarak from the International Hospital in Sharm El-Sheikh to Cairo will be issued “soon.” The court where the trial will take place has not been announced and a statement from El-Guindy’s office said due to the circumstances and high profile of this case, security will “take an unconventional form.”

Mubarak’s attorney said that the former president is “very sorry because he did not imagine such accusations,” and went on to say that Mubarak denies all accusations and charges leveled against him. El Deeb said that Mubarak expressed his sorrow in the wake of shootings at Tahrir during protests and that he had ordered a committee to investigate how those killings occurred. Almost a thousand people were killed during the 18-day revolution, including nearly 50 police officers.

According to a source within the prosecutor general’s office who wishes not to be identified, former Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has become a key witness against Mubarak and says that Mubarak was informed that the security services were using live ammunition against protesters at Tahrir and other places.

Suleiman’s testimony is expected to play a large part in evidence against Mubarak when he is brought to trial.

Sources say that Suleiman is prepared to testify that former President Mubarak was given hourly briefings about the tactics used by the officers of the Ministry of Interior including live ammunition to disperse demonstrators, and that Mubarak approved of those actions.

The unnamed source within the prosecutor’s office went on to say that the investigation has so far revealed that Mubarak and El-Adly along with senior police officials cooperated to deliberately kill protesters, by shooting at them and in some cases running over them with tanks and other vehicles.

Recently, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), has been accused by several activists and human rights workers in Egypt of procrastinating in enforcing the law against Mubarak. The SCAF were a main target of demonstrations this past Friday who staged a “Second Day of Rage” at Tahrir. Many protesters said the military junta was being too lenient on Mubarak and have been delaying the reform process.

The ruling interim military government, SCAF, has responded to the charges against Mubarak saying that it has no connection to the case either way and that it has no intentions of granting amnesty or a pardon to former president Mubarak.

In other news, a court fined Mubarak along with former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and former Interior Minister Habib El-Adly $90 million on Saturday for cutting off Internet and mobile phone service during the height of the revolution.

The court ruled that Mubarak, Nazif and El-Adly were guilty of “damaging” Egypt’s economy after ordering the shutdown of the country’s Internet and telecommunications services. Mubarak is ordered to pay about $33 million, while Nazif is fined $7 million and El-Adly received the heaviest fine of $50 million. The Egyptian government restored Internet service on February 2nd, after a week-long blackout used to make it difficult for demonstrators to organize and for the citizens to communicate with the outside world.

Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has said it will pay domestic mobile operators $16.8 million in compensation for the disruption of service. In a statement on Sunday, the ministry’s spokesperson told Zawya Dow Jones the compensation would go to mobile operators who suffered financially from the forced disconnection of services.

Islamist group to boycott major rally

Egypt’s protest movement is calling for a “second revolution” as it plans a huge rally Friday directed mainly against the country’s military rulers. But the movement itself is now beset by divisions over Egypt’s political future.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized political force, has come out against the protest planned for Cairo’s Tahrir Square, labeled “the second revolution of anger.” The Brotherhood says the protesters are driving a wedge between the military and the people.

That has set the Brotherhood against an array of liberal and secular groups who are losing trust in the military’s handling of the transition to democracy, but who themselves are divided.

The protesters still agree on the need to return to Tahrir Square. Pressure yields results, they say.

While the movement wants Egypt’s military rulers to speed up the pace of democratic transformation, some liberal groups are calling for planned parliamentary elections, now set for September, to be pushed back so that they will have more time to prepare. The Brotherhood, however, stands to make major gains and wants the vote to go ahead.

“The Brotherhood have a sweeping feeling that at this historic moment, a unique moment in their whole history, that they can get a large part of the parliament, and therefore make a constitution that will protect their interests and future,” said Ammar Ali Hassan, an Egyptian expert on Islamic groups.

The Muslim Brotherhood, banned in 1954, became a political force after renouncing violence in the 1970s. Eventually it became the most formidable opponent to Mubarak’s regime, though it was still banned as a political party.

When Mubarak fell, the Brotherhood stood ready with a huge network of social services and supporters.

Mubarak now faces trial on charges of conspiring to kill protesters. On Thursday, the country’s ex-housing minister was convicted of corruption and sentenced to five years in prison for illegally selling 18 acres of state land at cut-rate prices to an Egyptian businessman.

The Brotherhood has firmly pushed back against delaying the elections, spreading the message on TV and at rallies, and issuing a statement on its official website calling for the people’s will to be respected.

Its statement accused some of “driving a wedge between the people and its national army, which is the main supporter for the success of the revolution.”

Activist Hossam Hamalawi, a socialist who is calling for a civilian council to replace the military junta, said the Brotherhood statement amounted to accusations of treason.

“The statement included accusations that we are more or less traitors to the revolution, that we have our own agenda,” he said. “They are using the same language of the old regime.”

The ruling Armed Forces Council, after initially warning that “dubious” elements may try to cause chaos during Friday’s protests, said Thursday on its Facebook page that the right to peaceful protest is guaranteed. It said it will stay clear of the protest area to avoid any friction.

“The armed forces is from and for the people. Its protection of the revolution since it was launched was out of conviction of that principle,” the statement said.

Not all protesters agree on delaying the elections, but they are united by a fear of a growing convergence of opinions between the Islamists and the military.

“The Brotherhood and the army are one hand,” Bassem Kamel, a member of a youth coalition which was part of the uprising and a member of a new socialist democratic party. “The army can’t see anyone organized enough to deal with except the Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood like the scenario out there presented by the army… That is why they are also defending the military, always.”

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