Cairo, Egypt - A former Egyptian Minister of Interior, Habib Al-Adly, could face the capital punishment if indicted with any of the many charges he is facing before the military courts, local newspapers reported, quoting prominent Judicial sources. Al-Adly is accused of ordering the shooting of innocent protesters, leading to the killing of at least 365 revolution martyrs.

He is also accused of using disproportionate force via poisoned tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, and causing permanent disabilities to protesters via rubber bullets.

The man, seen by many as one of the major reasons for the fall of president Hosni Mubarak, is also accused of conspiracy and putting the lives of 80 million Egyptians at risk by withdrawing all his forces across the country at once at the height of the protests, and helping the release process of prisoners from jail in an attempt to terrorize the nation in what many Judicial sources said amounted to treason.

The successful youth-led 25 January revolution, had initially started as a protest against the way police treated the people but it gained momentum across the entire society and developing into a unified call for the ouster of Mubarak and his regime.

Al-Adly has also seen his assets and that of his family frozen for financial corruption allegations, and is being investigated along with several former top officials of the ousted Mubarak's regime.

His illegal fortune is alleged to be around US$ 1.5 billion, and that is no where near Mubarak's fortune which some have put at an astonishing US$ 70 billion, part of the estimated US$ 500 billion of Egypt's stolen fortune in the past years, according to several independent counts.

Pana 22/02/2011