Jailed aide to Mubarak granted release

Cairo: An Egyptian court on Monday ordered the release on bail of a right-hand man to former President Hosni Mubarak while another court considered a prison sentence recently handed to three young organisers who led the revolt against him.

Their lawyers walked out of court in protest over what they said were severe beatings of the organisers in prison. Eight months after the army removed Mubarak’s freely elected successor with a promise it was advancing democracy, the juxtaposition of court sessions raised new alarms that Egypt was instead turning back to its old authoritarian ways.

“The revolutionaries are in prison and the ex-NDP leader is out,” said Ahmad Abdullah, a spokesman for the liberal April 6 group, referring to Mubarak’s National Democratic Party. “Our revolution did not succeed.”

The release order was issued for Ahmad Ezz, a steel tycoon, former lawmaker and power broker, and the best-known face of the public corruption that flourished around Mubarak.

Known for tightfitting Italian suits and a close friendship with Mubarak’s son Jamal, Ezz appeared to love the spotlight, no matter what ordinary Egyptians thought.

He capitalised on personal connections and a wave of privatisations to build a steel company that ultimately controlled more than two-thirds of the Egyptian market. At the same time, he parlayed his growing fortune into a role as a political kingmaker, ultimately overseeing the National Democratic Party’s romp over any opposition in the 2010 parliamentary elections. The party’s one-sided sweep of the vote drew allegations of unfairness and helped ignite the revolt in 2011.

Ezz was placed under investigation during Mubarak’s last days in office, then arrested under the military council that took over at his ouster. Ezz was sentenced to more than 60 years in prison on counts of corruption, money laundering and antitrust violations. But on Monday, a criminal court overturned his last conviction (two others were overturned in May and December) and ordered his release while retrials proceed.

The jailed organisers who appeared in court on Monday included Ahmad Maher, leader of the April 6 group and one of the best-known faces of the revolt that toppled Mubarak and helped send Ezz to prison. With Maher were Mohammad Adel, another member of the group, and Ahmad Douma, an ally. All three were appealing three-year sentences for organising unauthorised demonstrations in December against certain policies of the military-backed government that took over last July, including its restrictions on protests.

The three told the judge that they had been beaten by their guards during the transfer from prison to court. The judge ordered prosecutors to investigate those charges and adjourned until next month.

In a letter smuggled out of prison and provided on Monday to The New York Times, Maher said that new groups of left-leaning detainees brought to the prison where he was being held had described torture and other abuses before their arrival.

“The law in Egypt allows the authorities to make precautionary arrests for an indefinite period of time just for doubts or concerns,” he wrote, adding, “so precautionary arrests are meant for abuse and not investigation.”

“The bigger problem is that there are thousands of very young people being subjected to oppression in prisons on a daily basis just for expressing an opinion or refusing the practices of the military regime. This might drive them to anger, hatred of the authorities and possibly revenge.”

But he added, “Unfortunately, the military authorities in Egypt do not want to believe that oppression, brutality and murder in protests and torture in prisons is what truly creates terrorism.”