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| Version 3 | Version 4 |
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| Egypt's euphoria turns sour under gaze of fallen martyrs | Egypt's euphoria turns sour under gaze of fallen martyrs |
| (6 days later) | |
| Their faces stared up from the dusty stretch of tarmac outside New Cairo's police academy, a silent roll call of butchery laid out like a human carpet amid a cacophony of chants, sirens and camera clicks in the morning sun. | Their faces stared up from the dusty stretch of tarmac outside New Cairo's police academy, a silent roll call of butchery laid out like a human carpet amid a cacophony of chants, sirens and camera clicks in the morning sun. |
| Mohamed Suleiman Tawfiq, smartly dressed in a blazer and white shirt. Ahmed Abdel Rahman Sultan, smiling in a zipped-up tracksuit top. Ibrahim Samir Sa'dun, an 18-year-old waiter, wrapped in an Egyptian flag. Their families say they died to build a new Egypt, but as jubilation turned to fury outside the courthouse gates it felt more like the old Egypt had never been away. | Mohamed Suleiman Tawfiq, smartly dressed in a blazer and white shirt. Ahmed Abdel Rahman Sultan, smiling in a zipped-up tracksuit top. Ibrahim Samir Sa'dun, an 18-year-old waiter, wrapped in an Egyptian flag. Their families say they died to build a new Egypt, but as jubilation turned to fury outside the courthouse gates it felt more like the old Egypt had never been away. |
| "When people were first killed in the revolution I didn't cry, because I knew this was the price we would have to pay for change," said Rania el-Malky, a former Egyptian newspaper editor. "Now, I'm crying." | "When people were first killed in the revolution I didn't cry, because I knew this was the price we would have to pay for change," said Rania el-Malky, a former Egyptian newspaper editor. "Now, I'm crying." |
| Most Egyptians have lived under the rule of Hosni Mubarak all their lives, and as the initial sentencing of life in prison for the toppled dictator and his interior minister Habib el-Adly filtered through to the crowds outside, a wave of euphoria erupted in front of thousands of watching security troops, sending fireworks spinning into the sky. | Most Egyptians have lived under the rule of Hosni Mubarak all their lives, and as the initial sentencing of life in prison for the toppled dictator and his interior minister Habib el-Adly filtered through to the crowds outside, a wave of euphoria erupted in front of thousands of watching security troops, sending fireworks spinning into the sky. |
| But as the revolutionaries drifted back to their scattered TV screens one by one to hear the rest of the judgment, the celebratory atmosphere ebbed away. Mubarak and Adly had not ordered any killings, declared the judge, but were responsible merely for failing to stop the bloodshed once it began. Every other defendant was innocent of all charges, he continued, exonerating key members of Mubarak's family and security apparatus in the process. | But as the revolutionaries drifted back to their scattered TV screens one by one to hear the rest of the judgment, the celebratory atmosphere ebbed away. Mubarak and Adly had not ordered any killings, declared the judge, but were responsible merely for failing to stop the bloodshed once it began. Every other defendant was innocent of all charges, he continued, exonerating key members of Mubarak's family and security apparatus in the process. |
| "This is a judgment for the regime, not against it," muttered Mohamed Yehia, whose friend Ahmed Gama'a, just 17 at the time, was gunned down by pro-Mubarak thugs while standing next to him in central Cairo last Friday. "The murderers have escaped." | "This is a judgment for the regime, not against it," muttered Mohamed Yehia, whose friend Ahmed Gama'a, just 17 at the time, was gunned down by pro-Mubarak thugs while standing next to him in central Cairo last Friday. "The murderers have escaped." |
| Two hundred metres away, hemmed in by more helmet-clad and shield-wielding police conscripts, a small pro-Mubarak rally took little comfort from that. One elderly woman fainted, while a man brandishing a rose-tinted placard of Mubarak in his youthful prime sunk to his knees in the road as they digested the news that the man many of them still call "father" had become the first ever Arab leader to be deposed, tried and imprisoned by his people. | Two hundred metres away, hemmed in by more helmet-clad and shield-wielding police conscripts, a small pro-Mubarak rally took little comfort from that. One elderly woman fainted, while a man brandishing a rose-tinted placard of Mubarak in his youthful prime sunk to his knees in the road as they digested the news that the man many of them still call "father" had become the first ever Arab leader to be deposed, tried and imprisoned by his people. |
| Rocks flew, a taxi window was smashed in, and soon violence had erupted once again in the shadow of a police academy that once bore Mubarak's name, and was now seemingly the venue for his downfall. | Rocks flew, a taxi window was smashed in, and soon violence had erupted once again in the shadow of a police academy that once bore Mubarak's name, and was now seemingly the venue for his downfall. |
| On the other side of the highway, amid the sandy, construction-site-dotted expanse of al-Tagammu al-Khamis – a desert suburb of half-built villas founded on corrupt land sales designed to enrich Mubarak's cronies – protesters hurled debris at charging security forces, causing cat-and-mouse scuffles to go scuttling off into the horizon. | On the other side of the highway, amid the sandy, construction-site-dotted expanse of al-Tagammu al-Khamis – a desert suburb of half-built villas founded on corrupt land sales designed to enrich Mubarak's cronies – protesters hurled debris at charging security forces, causing cat-and-mouse scuffles to go scuttling off into the horizon. |
| No corner of Egypt better symbolised the political elite's detachment from their population under the old regime, and today nowhere better symbolises the stuttering, contradictory progress of the country's ongoing revolution, where political division, lack of accountability and a bitter battle between street and state still remain. | No corner of Egypt better symbolised the political elite's detachment from their population under the old regime, and today nowhere better symbolises the stuttering, contradictory progress of the country's ongoing revolution, where political division, lack of accountability and a bitter battle between street and state still remain. |
| With pandemonium unfolding all around them, the faces of Tawfiq, Sultan and Sa'dun were lost and forgotten in the crush. One of their killers may be behind bars today, but the regime he presided over lives to fight another day. | With pandemonium unfolding all around them, the faces of Tawfiq, Sultan and Sa'dun were lost and forgotten in the crush. One of their killers may be behind bars today, but the regime he presided over lives to fight another day. |
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