Egypt’s Mubarak is no tyrant, defence tells court

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Egypt’s Mubarak is no tyrant, defence tells court

Hosni Mubarak’s defence lawyers say former president never tried to crush Egyptian protesters, but instead supported their demandsFor the past five months, the elderly man behind bars at New Cairo’s police academy has had to sit – or lie horizontal – as prosecutors steadily built their case against him, culminating in a dramatic demand that he be put to death by the state. “Integrity and transparency went down the drain [because] the defendant preferred his personal interests to those of the public,” concluded lead counsel Mostafa Suleiman earlier this month, speaking with his back to the despot who held Egypt in an iron grip for 30 years.