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Relief, Anger In Egypt As Mubarak Trial Starts

STEVE INSKEEP, Host:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:

What's known as the Arab Spring will soon extend into the fall. Any protest or a fallen government is the end of one story and the beginning of another. And we'll see evidence of that in the next few minutes as we check in on Syria, Yemen and Egypt.

INSKEEP: Former Egyptian Hosni Mubarak appeared in court yesterday lying on a hospital bed and placed inside a cage. Many Egyptians saw the spectacle on state television and afterwards some spoke with NPR's Mike Shuster.

MIKE SHUSTER: Many people like actor Ahmed Salah first expressed surprise.

AHMED SALAH: Yeah, it's a surprise for me. Everybody, everybody in Egypt is happy. But till now, it's very, very surprising, a good surprise.

SHUSTER: And for some the simple fact that Mubarak is being put on trial is a relief. He is charged with authorizing the killing of hundreds of demonstrators and with numerous acts of corruption. The trial itself is concrete evidence that things really are changing in the post-Mubarak Egypt.

SALAH: I can speak anything now. Now I have freedom. I have - everything is good.

SHUSTER: For Nermin Abdul Malek, a tour guide, the trial is only a beginning, but a significant one, one that is likely to affect all Egyptians in one way or another.

NERMIN ABDUL MALEK: I think he will have a fair trial, it needs time. Any change needs time. It absorbs a bit of anger that was in the streets, but there is still more anger around.

SHUSTER: Nermin Abdul Malek believes that Mubarak will get a fair trial and people will see that, but in the same breath she reveals what she thinks the ultimate outcome will be.

ABDUL MALEK: Whatever the result will be, whatever it's going to be like, I doubt they will clear his name. I doubt that. He denied all the accusations - normal scenario in any criminal case, you will hear the same thing, yeah. So it's not the verdict, it's not the verdict. We're still waiting for the verdict to be announced.

SHUSTER: Still, she says, people don't quite believe it yet, that Mubarak is facing charges that could bring the death penalty.

ABDUL MALEK: They need evidence to prove that everything goes in the right path. So yeah, I think it's a step, and it's a good step. It's a big step as well.

SHUSTER: But like many Egyptians, Abdul Malek understands there's much more to come. Ultimately the issue will boil down to the verdict and what sentence Mubarak will face. Cafe owner Ashraf Mahram says Mubarak ruled like a king, not a president.

ASHRAF MAHRAM: He was a dictator, he wasn't a president. He doesn't ask yourself one day what the people here they need or they want. He doesn't care about the people here.

SHUSTER: And so for Mahram, a fair trial could have only one outcome.

MAHRAM: The law says if you kill someone with no reason, you have to kill. But here nothing is sure.

SHUSTER: In the minds of many, if it is a fair trial, it will end up condemning Mubarak to death.

ABDUL MALEK: If it's fair, if it's fair, the president and his sons and the ministers, they must kill. If it's fair.

SHUSTER: Mike Shuster, NPR News, Cairo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Mike Shuster is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent and roving foreign correspondent for NPR News. He is based at NPR West, in Culver City, CA. When not traveling outside the U.S., Shuster covers issues of nuclear non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and the Pacific Rim.