Egypt

Monday’s papers: Mubarak one step closer to Tora

Having previously been spared joining his two sons and the pillars of his fallen regime in Tora prison because of his ailing health, Mubarak will be transferred from Sharm el-Sheikh to a military hospital in preparation for sending him to Tora prison hospital after the medical preparations there are ready.

Al-Dostour newspaper quotes the head of forensics, Al-Sebaie Ahmed al-Sebaie, as saying that he is not intimidated by death threats he received following his assignment to assess Mubarak’s health and determine whether he’s fit to be transported to Tora.

A failed scheme by escaped businessman Hussein Salem made for an intriguing thriller-like story on most front pages. Al-Wafd newspaper mentions an Arab princess who was involved in the plan to smuggle Salem’s property to Saudi Arabia with the help of a Palestinian agent. Packages weighing three tons that were seized at Cairo airport are reported to include artifacts, statues, precious jewellery, credit cards and photo albums.

In preparation for the start of the prosecution of former Minister of interior Habib al-Adly and his assistants for killing protesters, Al-Shorouk publishes a list of the names of those killed and injured in the 25 January revolution. Even though the fact-finding committee estimated the total number of casualties as surpassing 800, Adly is being tried for the murder of only 146 and the injury of 818, who gave official complaints to the prosecution.

Al-Shorouk reports on the most recent appearance of Wael Ghoneim, the Google employee and internet activist who became prominent during the revolution. After having disappeared from the media lately, Ghoneim gave a lecture at Stanford University in California about the revolution and to encourage foreigners to visit Egypt.

The situation in the Qena governorate where protests are escalating in refusal of the appointed governor took up much of the opinion sector after a brief visit by military forces failed to convince protesters to open the railways. Columnist Emad El Ghazaly suggested new ways to choose governors in the future to avoid similar situations: he suggests either electing governors or announcing vacancies and allowing anyone to apply.

Researcher Diaa Rashwan says that the protests are not caused by the Christian religion of the governor as suggested by the media but by the marginalization of Upper Egypt and suggests the appointment of a new governor and the relocation of the current one to solve the situation.

Al-Dostour newspaper heavily criticizes the newly appointed governors that were rejected by the people with a report entitled “Al-Dostour opens the black folders of the rejected new governors.” The report then details all the wrongdoings of the governors of Minya, Dakahleya, Alexandria and Assiut.

Fahmy Howeidy criticizes the performance of the Egyptian media in his column in Al-Shorouk, citing many incidents in which he deemed the reporting misleading. Even following the revolution, the Egyptian media remains as full of lies as if it were April Fool's day, he says.

The battles continue between the regimes and people of many Arab countries. The White House approved of Yemeni leader’s concession to leave within a few weeks while protesters remained skeptical and continued to demonstrate. The blood bath in Libya continues after Qadhafi forces were finally driven out of Misrata, while the death toll in Syria increases amid expectations of Bashar al-Assad’s fall.

Al-Wafd remains interested in indulging the reader with gloating details of the daily routine of Mubarak regime figures in Tora prison. The newspaper describes insignificant details such as Alaa holding it together better than Gamal, Zakareya Azmy refusing to let Ahmed Nazif into his cell and Safwat al-Sherif praying while sitting in the last row. It attributed the remarks to “sources”

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