Mubarak's trial adjured until October

The judge hearing the appeal against the fines imposed on the former president Hosni Mubarak, his prime minister and his interior minister for cutting communications links in Egypt has adjourned the case until 3rd October. That should give him time to unearth who took part in the meeting that made the decision. Was defence minister and head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ( SCAF ) Hussein Tantawi there? The army says he did not make the decision.

It does not really matter. The army was part of the old regime. It was its mainstay. When it saw that its position was under threat from the popular uprising, it sought to jettison the president so that it could remain unscathed. It was part of the old system. And it has played the pivotal role in shepherding in the new, as yet undetermined, system.

No one thinks that the army was blameless. The key will be what role it continues to play in future.

There is already great concern among liberal circles at the apparent closeness between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. They certainly share common views on the need for an orderly transition, without introducing so-called supra-constitutional articles. What has not been established is the extent of any co-ordination between these two disciplined bodies.

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