Fearing an arrest by Egypt's secret service, graphic artist Sherif Arafa kept his cartoons of dictator Hosni Mubarak locked in his safe. He told reporters about the fate of a dissident Egyptian writer who was abducted, tortured and left behind in the desert naked.

With Mubarak no longer in power and, in fact, in the dock since Wednesday, Arafa feels he can go further. His earliest cartoons featured bald little men intelligent viewers could recognise as representing the Egyptian president.

But these days you cannot escape Mubarak in Arafa's drawings. Sherif Arafa is 31 and earns a living as a dentist. He has also written a number of successful books.

Below: a number of his cartoons in chronological order, showing Mubarak before and after his graphic metamorphosis.
 
(rk/imm)