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Police testify in Mubarak trial amid clashes

06 September 2011 00:36 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A senior police witness in the trial of Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, has insisted he was not aware of any orders to use automatic weapons against protesters, APA reports quoting Aljazeera.

General Hussein Saeed Mursi, in his testimony on Monday, said that police had been given clear instructions, however, to use live ammunition to protect the interior ministry from attack during the uprising which eventually overthrew Mubarak.

He said the order was given by Ahmed Ramzi, a senior officer who is one of the defendants in the trial.
Mursi said he had heard police generals on January 28, the fourth day of the uprising, saying that automatic weapons had been used.

Police officials also discussed the use of ambulances to carry "weapons and ammunition because police vehicles were being attacked" by protesters, the police official said.

Mursi, head of communication in the state security service, was in the police operations room during the uprising.

He was one of four police witnesses to be heard about the crackdown on protesters that left hundreds of people dead.

"In my 30 years of experience with state security, I have not heard of any incident where an order was given to use live ammunition against protesters," he told the court.

Courtroom scuffles

Scuffles broke out inside and outside the courtroom in Cairo as the trial and court proceedings were temporarily halted as lawyers for the prosecution and the defence had to be separated by police.

Witnesses said a fight broke out when a defence lawyer raised a picture of Mubarak, prompting the wrath of
representatives of the victims.

Outside, at least 22 people were arrested as pro- and anti-Mubarak groups clashed, and some threw stones at riot police.

Sherine Tadros reports from outside the courthouse in Cairo

At least 26 people were injured - 14 officers from the central security forces and 12 protesters.

"We have not abandoned you," pro-Mubarak protesters chanted, while their rivals, including family members of victims of the deadly uprising, shouted, "Punishment, punishment, they killed our children with bullets."

The court is trying to determine who gave the orders for the shooting of protesters during the 18-day revolution which ended Mubarak’s 30 years in power.

The three other witnesses named by the court - Emad Badr Saeed, Bassim Mohamed el-Otaify and Mahmoud Galal Abdel Hamid - are also police officers who were in the operations room during the protests.

The 83-year-old Mubarak, hospitalised since April, arrived at the courthouse by helicopter and was wheeled on a gurney into a metal defendants’ cage in the court.

He is charged with involvement in killing protesters and "inciting" some officers to use live ammunition against
them.

Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, once viewed as being groomed for top office, Habib el-Adly, his former interior minister, and six senior police officers are also on trial.

Egyptians were not be able to follow the proceedings, previously broadcast on national television and big screens outside the courthouse, after a ruling that no more sessions should be televised

Mubarak is the first Arab leader to stand trial in person since the beginning of a wave of popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East this year.