Surf Arab States

Arab States Weekly Review 30th July – 5th August 2011

The trial of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak started in Cairo. He is charged with corruption and the killing of protesters, but pleaded not guilty. Mr. Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, a former interior minister and six officials of the former regime are all on trial at the same time.

Government forces in Syria were reported to have killed at least 100 people since July 31st, mostly in the town of Hama.

Tens of thousands of Islamists, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists inspired by the puritanical zealotry of early Islam, filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square to call for a state governed by Islamic law.

General Abdel Fatah Younis, a former interior minister in Colonel Qaddafi’s regime who had defected and was commanding Libya’s rebel forces, was assassinated in murky circumstances near Benghazi.