Mubarak released after time served
MAGGIE MICHAEL
CAIRO — Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was freed from custody Friday morning after six years of legal proceedings and wrangling that frustrated activists who had hoped he would face justice for the deaths of hundreds defying his rule.
The ailing, 88-year-old Mubarak left the Armed Forces Hospital in Cairo’s southern suburb of Maadi and went to his home in the upscale Heliopolis district under heavy security, according to an Egyptian security official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
His release marked a new chapter for the former autocrat whose people rose up against him in 2011 and demanded an end to his 30 years in power marked by corruption, economic inequity and reliance on a much-feared security apparatus.
It also underscored the failed aspirations of the Arab Spring movement that swept the region. Six years later, mass uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria have led to civil war, failed states or a return to heavy-handed rule.
Mubarak’s lawyer, Farid elDeeb, told the Al-Masry al-Youm daily that the former president returned home with his sons, Alaa and Gamal, and the entire family, including Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne, celebrated his return by having breakfast together.
On March 2, Egypt’s top appeals court acquitted Mubarak of charges that he ordered the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising.
A criminal court had ruled in May 2015 that Mubarak serve three years and fined him millions of Egyptian pounds following a conviction for embezzling funds earmarked for the maintenance and renovation of presidential palaces. The ruling was upheld by another court last year, and Mubarak’s release Friday was for time served.
Prosecutors on Thursday reopened another corruption case linked to allegations that Mubarak and his family received gifts worth $1 million from the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper.
Mubarak, who assumed Egypt’s highest office in 1981 following the assassination of Anwar Sadat, has spent virtually all the time since he was detained in hospitals due to poor health.