Protesters also took over or massed outside other security compounds around the country, with one center in Alexandria going up in flames Friday night," she wrote.
"At the courthouse, the proceedings were dominated by a group of often unruly lawyers, who had tacked public interest lawsuits onto the government's case, seeking huge compensation for Interior Ministry victims."
"This was Egypt's executioner!" yelled Hussein Abou Eissa, a lawyer, at Judge Al-Mohammadi Qunsua, before hurling similar invective at the accused. The judge, known in Egypt for his independence, barked at the lawyers to remain orderly and quickly postponed the case until April 2.
The charges read by the prosecutor revolve around a piece of land the ministry controlled that it said Mr. Adly had sold to a private contractor working for the ministry, plus money found in his bank account that the government said did not belong there. Defense lawyers asked for more time to study the documents."
She observed, "Few details seem too small to escape all manner of fly-on-the wall reports. One former minister ordered food delivered from home rather than eat prison swill, newspapers said. At one point, when Mr. Adly opened the tap in his cell and no water came out, a guard said it would start flowing "right now," although it was still not working an hour later, the semiofficial newspaper Al Akhbar reported."
"The word "now' used to mean that things would happen within five minutes at the Interior Ministry," the newspaper reported Mr. Adly yelling at his guards."
"That's over now," one guard retorted and Andrea Bruce faithfully recorded.
Reading the entire stories filed by these two pros, one almost had the feeling of beginning to understand what was happening at ground level those thousands of miles away.
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