EGYPT: Court orders the dissolution of Mubarak's former ruling party

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court on Saturday disbanded the former ruling National Democratic Party that was headed by ousted President Hosni Mubarak. The move marked the further unraveling of the power structure that presided over the country's corrupt police state for nearly 30 years.

The decision is a victory for Egyptian protesters who made dissolving the NDP one of the main demands set by the Jan. 25 uprising that ended with the fall of Mubarak and his regime on Feb.11.

“The popular Jan. 25 revolution has toppled the former ruling regime and forced former President Hosni Mubarak, who was head of the NDP to step down. Now that the regime itself has fallen, it is illogical for any instruments of the fallen regime to remain,” the court said in a statement.

The court has also ordered the liquidation of all the party’s financial assets and properties with funds to be returned to the state. “This money is actually the money of the people,” the court added. Questions over the future of the party had been growing since Mubarak’s ouster.

In a final attempt to redeem the disgraced party, newly appointed chief Talaat Sadat had expelled 60 of its former members. Sadat, nephew of late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, said the court's ruling was “politicized and not based on provisions of the law,” adding that members of the disbanded party would immediately begin establishing a “New National Party.”

Formed in 1978 by Anwar Sadat, the National Democratic Party grew to be the dominant force in Egypt’s politics. Local council leaders and governors, as well as ministers serving under Mubarak, all became members of the party, which was criticized for allegedly rigging elections to secure a majority in the nation's parliament.

Members of the party, including steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz and Gamal Mubarak, the former president's son and a ranking party official, and other businessmen, were seen as symbols of corruption in what was dubbed the “illegal marriage between money and power.”

Among a number of former ministers and prominent NDP officials, Ezz, Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, are currently detained pending investigations over claims of power abuse, illegal gains and killing protesters during the Jan. 25 uprising.

While Alaa and Gamal Mubarak remain in Tora prison on the outskirts of Cairo, Hosni Mubarak is being interrogated in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh after suffering heart problems on Tuesday. General Prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmoud ordered that Mubarak should be transferred to a military hospital in Cairo before being moved to prison once his condition is stable.

Mubarak was expected to be transferred on Saturday but the timing of his transfer is kept deliberately vague due to security reasons. The Supreme Administrative Court’s verdicts are irreversible and it is not likely that the decision to dissolve the NDP will be appealed.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Banners promoting NDP candidates with photos of Hosni and Gamal Mubarak in the parliamentary elections held last December. Credit: Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters

Comments

[Esther Haman]

The Preemptive Revolution is falling apart and the Zionists are shacking in their boots. There will be an end to the falls sense of security under which the Zionist entity was able to commit atrocities against the Palestinians and the indigent population of the Palestine. She is now completely surrounded with only one way out, the sea. Bonn voyage.

[DMN]

After reading ur first comment about Mubarak having to torture it comes as no surprised that u ended it with Shalom..

[dr henry kissinger]

Mubarak was an excellent chosen leader. He served us so well. He should not be abandoned even if he was involved in the tortutre and killing. Mubarak had to torture otherwise the moslem brotherhood would take over.
shalom
dr.k.

[John Dingler, artist]

It's fascinating that "Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court...disbanded the former ruling National Democratic Party...."

The NDP is a union of citizens pushing for further rights and privileges and for consolidating and extending their political wins into the future. The Egyptian court disbanded it.

The US also has unions but, so far, the court has not yet disbanded any as far as I know except, maybe, the Air Traffic Controllers's Union.

More currently, Republicans in Wisconsin are trying to desiccate or disband worker's unions because, they feel -- in the language of the Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court -- "Now that the regime (of the Democratic Party) itself has fallen, it is illogical for any instruments of the fallen regime to remain,..." Therefore, there is no longer any need for unions in Wisconsin.