Perilous
Times
At least 846 Egyptians killed in anti-Mubarak uprising, says
government probe
By Maggie Michael, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
CAIRO - At least 846 Egyptians died in the nearly three-week-long
popular uprising that toppled long-serving President Hosni
Mubarak, electrifying the region, a government fact-finding
mission announced Tuesday.
In their report, the panel of judges described police forces
shooting protesters in the head and chest with live ammunition and
presented a death toll more than twice that of previous official
estimates.
"The fatal shots were due to firing bullets at the head and the
chest," the report read, adding that "a huge number of eye
injures," filled hospitals, and hundreds lost their sight.
Earlier official estimates had put the toll from the days of
demonstrations, in which protesters battled heavily armed legions
of riot police, at 365.
The mission held Mubarak ultimately responsible for the killing of
the protesters since his interior minister, Habib el-Adly, had
issued the orders to open fire.
According to Omar Marawan, the head of the commission, the report
is based on accounts of 17,058 officials and eyewitnesses along
with 800 video clips and pictures obtained from individuals who
were present at the protests.
Mubarak was forced to step down on Feb. 11 by massive
demonstrations against his three decades in power. One of the
protesters' chief complaints was the corruption that pervades the
government, its bureaucracy and virtually all levels of society.
Mubarak and his sons were placed in custody April 13 for 15 days
while they are investigated over allegations of corruption and
their role in the shooting of protesters.
Mubarak has remained in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh until he can be transferred to a military hospital. He
was hospitalized with unspecified heart problems on Tuesday, the
same day his questioning began.
Along with the president's sons, most of Mubarak's associates are
in Tora prison, south of the capital, over allegations related to
corruption and violence against protesters.
On Tuesday, the health and labour ministers were questioned over
corruption and the day before prosecutors spoke to former
vice-president Omar Suleiman about Mubarak's wealth and activities
during the protests.
Among the mission's conclusions, was confirmation that policemen
commandeered a U.S. embassy vehicle and used it to run over
protesters on Feb. 2, the same day horses and camels charged
demonstrators in Tahrir square.