Egypt protesters demand Mubarak, other aides, face trial

Thousands of Egyptians gathered at Tahrir Square in Cairo to demand that former President Hosni Mubarak and some of his associates be put on trial.

Called Friday for the rescue of the revolution, that rally was formed by the Youth Revolution Coalition, an activist group who have been involved in anti-Mubarak protests from the beginning.

Aside from Mubarak, the demonstrators are calling for Fathi Serour, the former parliament speaker; Zakariya Azmi, head of the presidential palace, and Safwat al-Sherif, the former secretary general of the ruling party, face justice in a court of law to answer charges of widespread corruption.

Nasser Abdel Hamid, a protester, told Bloomberg that the aforementioned trio are “pillars of the former regime. The fact that they haven’t been tried yet is strange.”

The Egyptian government has forbidden the three men from travelling.

Mohamed Al-Khodier, a protester at the rally, told Al Jazeera: We want to put on trial those officials and confiscate their money, remove the [former ruling] National Democratic Party, and stop exporting gas to Israel.”

A reporter for Al Jazeera who witnessed the demonstration said: They say that the aims of the revolution has not yet been completed. There is so much that still needs to be done. The primary call from the crowd at this stage is for action to be taken against those from the previous regime. In particular, Hosni Mubarak himself, as well as those allied with him.

Egypt is current ruled by a supreme military council, although they have promised to hold democratic elections before the end of the year.

Placing Mubarak, a former military chief, on trial, might rub some senior army officials the wrong way.

The Al Jazeera reporter commented: For the military rulers to take actions against somebody they supported and backed in the past is a very difficult challenge and a major test of whether this military council, in this post-revolutionary period leading to the handover back to civilian rule, is going to listen to the people and to what extent it's prepared to do so.”