Mubarak denies ordering police to kill protesters
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak gestures during a news conference in the Kremlin in Moscow, on May 28, 2004.
Egypt's deposed president Hosni Mubarak told investigators earlier this year that he did not order the killing of protesters during the country's January revolution, according to a recently leaked transcript of his interrogations with judicial officials.
The transcript, which was published online by an Egyptian newspaper on Thursday, covered a 42-day official investigation of Mubarak that started in mid-April.
Mubarak reportedly told investigators that he was warned beforehand that protests were going to occur in Tahrir Square on January 25, but that he ordered Egyptian security forces not to quell them with force.
"I gave an order to not use violence with demonstrators, and not to use weapons or ammunition," the ex-president told investigators, according to Egypt's Youm 7 newspaper, which published the transcript on their website.
More than 800 protesters were killed during Egypt's turbulent uprising, many from shotgun wounds.
Throughout the interview with prosecutors, Mubarak repeatedly claimed to have very little knowledge of what was happening on the ground between police forces and protesters in January and February.
The full Mubarak transcript can be read here.
The Associated Press reports on the authenticity of the document:
Judicial officials confirmed that the transcript is authentic. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. Mubarak’s chief defense lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, said that part of what was published had been fabricated, but declined to elaborate.
Mubarak, 83, has been living at a hospital in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh while undergoing treatment for a heart condition.
Deteriorating health conditions have spared the former president from a period of detention at Cairo's notorious Torah Prison, where Gamal and Alaa, Mubarak's two sons, are currently residing pending a similar investigation over corruption.
Mubarak is scheduled to face trial on August 3 for alleged corruption during his three decades of rule as well on the charges that he ordered police to use violence against protesters.
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