Many Egyptians were very pleased today to discover that the sons of former dictator Hosni Mubarak were flown from their family palace in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheik and deposited by the military just down the street from me at the much less desirable address of Torah Prison in Maadi.
Alaa and Gamal Mubarak join in Torah Prison a number of other regime hoodlums such as the billionaire Ahmed Ezz, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, and the businessman and Democratic National Party figure Ibrahim Kemal, the latter of whom is suspected of inciting the violence in Tahrir Square last Saturday morning which resulted in two deaths and many injuries. The Army forcibly removed democracy protesters in Tahrir Square who insisted that the military rulers, who are often accused of being soft on their former regime allies, should proceed immediately with the prosecution of the corrupt creatures of the Mubarak regime such as Ibrahim, himself. Gamal and Alaa Mubarak, who became unbelievably wealthy by exploiting their positions as the sons of Hosni, had grown up with the expectation that they would not only be wealthy and powerful, but Gamal’s parents made it quite clear that they wished him to succeed to Hosni’s throne. A desire to prevent this succession was a powerful engine for discontent in Egypt and was an important factor in inciting the January protests.
Now, however, Alaa and Gamal will have their business practices investigated by the Illicit Gains Authority in Cairo, a body that will find itself very, very busy once it begins to open the accounts of Mubarak and his minions. Though Mubarak himself has had two months to hide his assets since he was kicked out of office – so one wonders how much of that loot can be recovered — Her Excellency Suzanne Mubarak (as she was known in the bad old days) may not be so lucky. Apparently Suzanne, not wishing to let the boys have all the Illicit Gains to themselves, gained access to a $147 million gift account at the Alexandria Library and questions are now being asked as to whether she was actually managing these funds in the public interest.
There is, to me, a particular pleasure in seeing these Mubaraks interned in Torah Prison. During the democracy protests of late January and early February, Mubarak’s men primarily sought to snuff out the protests by having their security police slaughter hundreds of protesters and badly injure thousands of others. I spoke to a man the other day who is helping many young protesters who suffered horrible injuries to their eyes as a result of shotgun blasts fired by the police into the crowds at Tahrir Square.
Another tactic that seems to have been used by the regime, however, was to create chaos by withdrawing the police from Cairo and releasing among us civilians around 20,000 dangerous criminals who also looted prison arsenals – some suggest that the police opened the arsenals, themselves. As we listened one night to Mubarak’s official spokesman screeching to an incredulous Al-Jazeera that the democracy protesters in Tahrir Square were actually a bunch of criminals and that they were to blame for the looting and suddenly rampant criminality around us, we all knew better. With no police protection, tanks and armored cars driving around our neighborhood, the sound of automatic rifles and explosions around us night and day, and gangs of escaped convicts from Torah Prison breaking into houses just down the street from us, we knew who our enemies were. And now, rather than releasing convicts from Torah Prison into our neighborhood, these enemies of ours are keeping the convicts company. Don’t drop the soap, Gamal.
Tags: Alaa Mubarak, Cairo, Egypt, Gamal Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak, Looters, Maadi, Ministry of the Interior, Protests, Suzanne Mubarak, Tahrir Square, Torah Prison
