Sibilant Egypt

As the verdict was read out, sentencing Hosni Mubarak to life in prison, an earthquake shook the ground not too far from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the former president preferred to while away his days during his last decade in power.

A verdict that has seemingly appeased nobody has shrouded Egypt’s future in even more uncertainty at a delicate time on the brink of handover from overt military rule to an elected president. For while Mubarak and his interior minister Habib el-Adly got life, his sons and Adly’s aides were completely exonerated.

The streets of Egypt are brewing with discontent in response to a “politicised” verdict: protests in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez are already at full pelt and will increase as the searing summer sun winds down. Egypt is currently in the midst of a presidential election runoff slated for mid-June between Mubarak’s prime minister during the revolution, Ahmed Shafik, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi. The two candidates that made it to the second round have been roundly criticised as the two options the majority did not want. Read more…