BBC ARABIC (UK), AL-MASRY AL-YOUM (Egypt)
CAIRO - Protests are continuing in Egypt following the verdict in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, Mubarak’s two sons and six security officials.
Though the former president and interior minister receieved 25-year sentences, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak and the six senior officials were acquitted -- and as candidates Mohamed Mursi and Ahmed Shafik prepare for the upcoming runoff for the presidency, Cairo’s Tahrir Square and other sites around the country are filling with protesters condemning the ruling and demanding a second revolution, BBC Arabic reported.
The events come amidst what BBC Arabic called “frantic efforts” to reach a political agreement among revolutionary factions hoping to defeat Shafik, Mubarak’s last appointed minister before his resignation in February 2011.
Shafik held a press conference on Sunday attacking the Muslim Brotherhood and Mursi, saying he represented a “civil [non-religious] state while [Mursi] represents a sectarian state.”
Inexplicably, Shafik said the Muslim Brotherhood “are from the previous regime,” while failing to mention his own role as a longtime Mubarak loyalist. He also denounced what he called the Brotherhood’s intimidation campaign “in order to influence the decision of the voter,” which he said gave them an unfair advantage in the first round.
Also on Monday, the jailed former president was visited at Tora prison by his wife, Suzanne Mubarak. Al Masry Al Youm reported that law typically forbids prisoners from receiving visitors in the first month of their sentence, but an exception was made for the former first couple.
