Tantawi, Anan may face legal action

Thirty complaints have been filed against Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, former head of Egypt’s army, and his deputy General Sami Anan, for suppressing last year’s popular uprising, a judicial source said Sunday. Anan is also the subject of an additional complaint accusing him of illegally acquiring building plots near Cairo, the source said. The complaints were forwarded by Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmud to the military prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether action should be taken. If the complaints are recognized as valid, they could lead to the first trial of members of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) which ruled Egypt after the fall of president Hosni Mubarak until President Mohamed Mursi’s inauguration. Tantawi, Mubarak’s defense minister for two decades, ruled Egypt as head of state after the former strongman’s fall. Anan, the former chief of staff of the armed forces, was number two at the SCAF, a group of 20 generals. On August 12, the newly elected Mursi boosted his authority by retiring both Tantawi and Anan and scrapping a constitutional document that gave the military legislative and other powers. Both men were given Egypt’s most prestigious award, the Greatest Nile Collar, and retained as presidential advisers. However, there have been calls for Tantawi and Anan to face trial, particularly from among the ranks of leftist movements and from movements involved in the revolt against Mubarak. Mubarak, himself a former general, is now serving a life sentence handed down in June for his involvement in the deaths of protesters during the uprising against his regime in early 2011.