CAIRO - The world came to a stop for three former ministers and a steel tycoon when they landed at el-Mazraa Prison on the outskirts of Cairo late Thursday.
The ex-ministers of Interior, Tourism, Housing and business mogul Ahmed Ezz were in total shock when they were taken off the small police buses and led into the prison, where grim looking guards ordered them to put on white prison suits, eye witnesses said.
Habib el-Adli, Ahmed el-Maghrabi, Zoheir Garranah and Ahmed Ezz, the former organisation chief of the then ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), are being held in custody at el-Mazraa Prison for 15 days for further interrogation.
The four men were detained on suspicion of negligence, money laundering, diverting public funds and profiteering while assuming their ministerial posts. They were arrested a day after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as Egypt's president on Feb 11.
According to prison guards, who asked not to be identified, the men felt great psychological pain.
They have been charged with crimes punishable by at least 20 years in prison, the guards said.
Their emotional grief and devastation were at their peak when the four men were welcomed by inmates, who greeted them with obscenities, while being led through a long corridor to their respective cells.
After all the limelight and media attention these four men enjoyed and basked in over the years, they might need time to absorb the conditions of daily life in prison, the guards said.
"They arrived at the prison after three days of closed-door interrogations," the guards said, adding that the ex-officials were locked up in separate cells.
"Their alleged corruption cases have to be handled carefully and no decision should be based on their former special status," a guard said.
One guard disclosed that former Housing Minister el-Maghrabi was quite weak and not able to stand while being assessed in the prison's newcomer reception room.
"A broken-down el-Maghrabi was allowed to sit on a plastic chair during the evaluation process, which involved taking off the handcuffs, undergoing a body search, taking off his civilian clothes, putting on the issued white uniform and attending a medical examination by the prison doctor before being taken to the cell," the guard said.
The prison officials stated that they would act legally and reasonably towards the four officials, according to the prosecutors' orders and in compliance with the rule of the prison by-laws which apply to all inmates.
"During the assessment, Ahmed Ezz burst into tears and refused to put on the prison uniform. He was gasping for a cigarette and pleaded with a guard to light it for him. Ezz, in his mid-forties, has not stopped crying since his arrival at the prison on Thursday," a warden said.
"With tears running down his face, Ezz is repeating that he did not do anything wrong and that he is the victim of false accusations," the warden said.
He added that the former Interior Minister was talking arrogantly to the prison guards and officers, giving them orders rather than obeying their instructions.
"El-Adli ordered a non-commissioned officer to salute him and remove his handcuffs. But the non-commissined officer refused and insisted that a hand-cuffed Adli should walk with him to the reception office like any newcomer," the guard said.
Another guard said that ex-Tourism Minister Garranah was calm on his first day in jail. "But he refuses to talk to any one or eat prison food. He has ordered food from his own house," the guard said, adding that the former minister was trying to keep his self-respect and integrity.
Each one of these officials is trying to survive the prison experience in a different way. "Ezz says he is sad because most of his top-shot friends have abandoned him and even some members of his family, including his wife, have turned their back on him," a guard said, adding that the ex-steel magnate was reduced to tears when he was welcomed by his old rival Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a real estate mogul.
Moustafa is in the same prison for hiring a hit man to murder his former lover, a Lebanese pop star, in a case that put a spotlight on the political power of wealthy businessmen with links to the Government in Egypt.
Moustafa, 50, one of the country's wealthiest businessmen, welcomed the weeping Ezz with a big hug.
"Why did it take you so long to come here, my friend," the guards heard a gloating Moustafa telling Ezz outside the packed courtyard.
Moustafa, a former member of Parliament's Upper House, the Shura Council, was also a member of the then ruling party's Policies Committee, which was chaired by ex-President Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal.
Defence lawyers argued, among other things, that the evidence was insufficient to implicate their clientes.
In the old days, pro-Government newspapers have defended Moustafa and Ezz as national heroes.
In the meantime, the four ex-officials have no contact with the outside world. "They spend most of their time in their safe cells," a prison guard said, emphasising that the prison officials have taken extra security measures to ensure that the four ex-officials are not physically attacked by other inmates.
"El-Adli never thought one day he would hit the slammer and be a prisoner himself," a police officer said.
