CAIRO — During a day of fistfights and raucous courtroom antics, a former senior state security official surprised the prosecution in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday, testifying that he knew of no orders to shoot protesters during the revolution that overthrew the Egyptian president last winter.
The comments by Gen. Hussein Said Moussa appeared to contradict his earlier statements about whether Mubarak and then-Interior Minister Habib el-Adly sanctioned using live ammunition in the crackdown that left more than 800 people dead between Jan. 25 and Feb. 11. The deposed president is on trial for complicity to commit murder.
Outside the courthouse, dozens were injured in clashes between Mubarak loyalists and families of those killed. Pro- and anti-Mubarak lawyers punched one another inside the courtroom, even as the disgraced 83-year-old autocrat arrived on a stretcher to watch from the defendant’s cage as the case against him unfolded.
The violence prompted Judge Ahmed Refaat to leave the bench for 45 minutes.
The prosecution attempted to shed light on the inner workings of Mubarak’s police state. Questions were raised about how a leader who had concentrated his power over decades could not have known demonstrators were being shot. Testimony also showed that Mubarak’s security forces were so overwhelmed that they hid ammunition in ambulances to sneak it past protesters.
Prosecutors called Moussa, who was in charge of the security forces’ communications command center and was recently sentenced to two years in prison for destroying evidence, to the stand to buttress their charges. But he testified that police were ordered to fire only tear gas and rubber bullets. He said live ammunition was later used to protect police stations and the Interior Ministry.
The fate of Mubarak — he faces the death penalty if convicted — has enthralled the Arab world. Mubarak’s sons Alaa and Gamal, both charged with financial corruption, stood over their father Monday in a cage shared with el-Adly and six former senior Interior Ministry officials.
The hearing was a resumption of the trial after an Aug. 15 adjournment. The trial is expected to resume Wednesday.
