Scuffles disrupt Mubarak trial as police testify

CAIRO — The prosecution's first witness in the trial of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak startled the court in a stormy session Monday, testifying that police were not ordered to fire on protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in a contradiction of the prosecutors' central claim.

The police general's statement could damage the prosecution's case that Mubarak and his security chief gave the green light to police to use lethal force to crush the uprising, during which at least 850 people were killed.

Prosecution lawyers were visibly stunned by the testimony of the witness, Gen. Hussein Moussa, and angrily accused him of changing his story from the affadavit he initially gave prosecutors.

Relatives of protesters killed during Egypt's uprising scuffled with police and tried to force their way into the Cairo courtroom, demanding to be allowed to attend the latest session in the trial.

Live TV broadcasts of the landmark trial have been halted by a judge's order, and family members massed outside the courtroom were angered they could not witness the prosecution of the former leader charged with complicity in their loved ones' deaths.

In Monday's sessions, proceedings were taking a key turn, with the first witnesses taking the stand after the procedural issues that have dominated the trial so far.

'Beginning of the real trial'
The first witness to take the stand was top police official, Gen. Hussein Saeed Mohamed Mursi, head of communication in the state security service.

He told the court that police were instructed to use tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters on the night of Jan. 25, when protests against Mubarak erupted, state television said.

"The first witness denied the possibility of using automatic weapons against the protesters," state television said, quoting Mursi.

Mubarak's downfall came on Feb. 11 after an 18-day popular uprising.

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Gamal Eid, a lawyer representing 16 of some 850 people killed in the uprising, earlier told Reuters Mursi worked in the police operations room during the uprising and had been accused of deleting recordings of what happened in the room at that time.

"(Mursi) had been accused in a decision issued by the general prosecutor of deleting those recordings but he later turned into a witness," Eid said.

The three other witnesses to be called by the court are police officers who were in the operations room during the 18 days of protests. The court named them as Emad Badr Saeed, Bassim Mohamed el-Otaify and Mahmoud Galal Abdel Hamid.

"This the beginning of the real trial," said Khaled Abu Bakr, a lawyer representing families of slain protesters.

Chaotic scenes outside courthouse
The 83-year-old Mubarak, who is in ill health, was shown on state TV being wheeled on a gurney from a helicopter that landed in the Police Academy on Cairo's outskirts, where the court has been set up. He shielded his face from the sun as he was taken into an ambulance to deliver him to the session. In the courtroom, he lay in a hospital bed in the defendants' cage along with his co-defendants, including his two sons.

Outside the academy compound, hundreds of victims' families and protesters pushed and shoved in an attempt to break through the main gates and enter the court building. Black-clad anti-riot police swung batons and briefly clashed with the protesters, who hurled stones at the security forces.

Interactive: The rise and fall of Hosni Mubarak (on this page)

TV footage also showed metal barricades being thrown, while hundreds of anti-riot police chased young men in the streets.

Ramadan Ahmed Abdou, the father of a slain protester, said he applied for permission to attend the session and had been told he could pick up the permit Monday morning before the trial. But when he arrived, he was told there was no permit for him.

"People are very frustrated," he said. "We said OK when the judge decided to ban the broadcast of the trial, but we want to see it ourselves," he said.

Crowds held posters of slain protesters and shouted, "To die like them or to get their rights." One held a hangman's noose and demanded Mubarak's execution. Some set fire to pictures of Mubarak, while chanting, "The people want to execute the butcher."

Nearby, about 50 Mubarak supporters in a counterdemonstration cried out, "Why humiliate the president who protected us?"

Emotional proceedings
It was the third time that family members and others have tried but been unable to get into the courtroom since the trial began on Aug. 3. Showing the hearings live on state television had been a nod to widespread public demand for a chance to see the trial of the man who led the country for nearly 30 years. It was also a gesture to activists who complained that the military rulers now in charge of the country were dragging their feet bringing Mubarak and stalwarts of his regime to justice.

But in an Aug. 15 session, the chief judge, Ahmed Rifaat, stopped the live broadcasts to "protect the public interest." The move appeared to be aimed at reducing what had been a rather circus-like atmosphere in the courtroom, but many saw it as aimed at preventing humiliation of the president or tamping down public interest.

Slideshow: Hosni Mubarak on trial (on this page)

Mubarak is charged with corruption and with complicity in the killings of protesters. About 850 people were killed when police opened fire on protesters during the uprising. His sons, Gamal and Alaa, also face corruption charges, and his former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly and six top police officers are also charged in the protester killings.

In the court Monday, the session was stormy, as the many lawyers involved in the case shouted insults at each other. According to Gamal Eid, a human rights lawyer, who tweeted from inside the courtroom, the session started with "big fight between the victims' lawyers and Mubarak's lawyers." Chants of "'the people want the execution of the ousted one,' rocked the courtroom," he said.

Eid tweeted that lawyers screamed and yelled at the judges, prompting Rifaat to briefly halt the session. Egyptian television confirmed that the session was halted and then resumed.

More than 1,000 witnesses called
Attorneys have filed motions to summon more than 1,000 witnesses in the trial, including Hussein Tantawi, the head of the council of generals that took over control of the country after Mubarak's fall. Tantawi was also Mubarak's defense minister.

The scene of Mubarak in bed inside a defendants cage was an unprecedented moment in the Arab world, the first time a modern Mideast leader has been put on trial fully by his own people. However, more than six months after the uprising, Egyptians are still agitated at the slow pace of reforms and the failure of the ruling military council in restoring law and order in the streets.

A call for big rally on Sept. 9 has been circulating on social networking sites against the military's policy of putting civilians on trial in front of military tribunal. Thousands — including protesters — have been put on swift trials by the tribunals, drawing condemnations from rights activists, while Mubarak and his associates have gone before civilian courts.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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UK may disrupt social networks during unrest

LONDON — Britain is considering disrupting online social networking such as BlackBerry Messenger and Twitter during civil unrest, Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday, a move widely condemned as repressive when used by other countries.

Egyptian authorities shut down mobile and Internet services in January during mass protests against then-President Hosni Mubarak, while China is quick to shut down online communication it sees as subversive.

Police and politicians have said online social networks, in particular Research in Motion's popular BlackBerry Messager (BBM), were used by rioters and looters to coordinate during four days of disorder across England this week.

"We are working with police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality," Cameron told parliament during an emergency session prompted by the riots.

Many of the rioters favored Canadian firm RIM's BBM over Twitter and other social media because its messages are encrypted and private.

The company said Monday that it cooperates with all telecommunications, law enforcement and regulatory authorities, but it declined to say whether it would hand over chat logs or user details to police.

RIM's encrypted services have been blamed for aiding militant attacks in India and for allowing unrelated men and women to communicate in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In August last year, a source close to talks between RIM and Saudi authorities said the company had agreed to hand over information that would allow monitoring of BBM.

Online social media was also widely used by members of the British public in recent days to help others avoid troublespots and to coordinate a clean up after the rioting had ended.

BBM has more than 45 million active users worldwide, 70 percent of whom use it daily, sending billions of messages, pictures and other files in total every month.

Authorities grappling with violent unrest should avoid heavy-handed clampdowns on social media and instead try to enlist the help of the public against the rioters, said John Bassett, a former senior official at British signals intelligence agency GCHQ and now a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

"The use of social media in the unrest looks like a game-changer. But any attempt to exert state control over social media looks likely to fail," he told Reuters.

"A much better approach would be to encourage and support individuals and community groups in identifying alarming developments on social media and even speaking out on the internet against extremists and criminals, and ensuring that the police have the skills and technical support to get pre-emptive and operational intelligence from social media when necessary."

More on social media and the London riots:

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