Egypt various

Was at a dinner party tonight in a neighborhood where many top former regime officials lived. The host of the dinner, a perfectly honest engineer, said only half-jokingly that most of his neighbors are now in jail. There was also a military presence out there, apparently because Omar Suleiman lives in the neighborhood as well.

Returning to Zamalek, there was a weird pro-Mubarak protest headed west along 26th of July Street. It was small but very aggressive, maybe 10-15 young men, some of them carrying Mubarak posters, all of them chanting pro-Mubarak slogans. They walked very assertively down the rows of stopped traffic. All the merchants along 26th of July, still in possession of their January/February gear, moved within minutes to block their windows with plywood and other such barriers. But no damage was done; just chanting.

This protests may have something to do with the Justice Minister’s RATHER UNCOMPROMISING STATEMENT about Mubarak’s legal case, basically saying that if he is found guilty of the premeditated murder of 800 protestors, the death sentence is inevitable.