Egypt, post Mubarak trial

Egypt’s general prosecutor appealed against the sentences handed out in Mubarak trial.              

This as relative calm was restored in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday morning, hours after protesters filled the area to vent their anger following the verdicts in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak and members of his regime.           

A few hundred protesters continued to demonstrate on Sunday, after up to 10,000 people converged on the birthplace of Egypt's uprising the night before.              

Although Mubarak received a life sentence for failing to stop the killing of protesters during Egypt's uprising, he and his sons were cleared of corruption charges, setting off protests demanding greater accountability for 30 years of abuses under the old regime.             

Mubarak's former security chief Habib el-Adly was also convicted of complicity in the killings of some 900 protesters and handed a life sentence.            

But six top police commanders were acquitted of the same charge with chief Judge Ahmed Rifaat saying there was a lack of concrete evidence. 

"Mubarak is 80 years old, I don't care about his verdict. I cared more of the other people who were acquitted," said protester, Mohamed Ahmed.         

The verdict was a stark reminder that though the head has been removed, the body of the reviled security apparatus is largely untouched by genuine reform or purges since Mubarak was ousted 15 months ago.            

In many ways, the old system remains in place and the clearest example of that is a key regime figure - Mubarak's longtime friend and last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq - is one of two candidates in the presidential runoff set for June 16-17.

REUTERS/APTN