Military funeral, three days of mourning for Egypt’s former president Mubarak
EGYPT held a military funeral in Cairo yesterday to bury its former president, Hosni Mubarak, who held office for 30 years until he was ousted in a 2011 popular uprising against corruption.
Horses drew Mubarak’s coffin draped in the Egyptian flag at a mosque complex, followed by a procession led by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s top military brass, Mubarak’s sons Alaa and Gamal and other Egyptian and Arab dignitaries.
Mubarak, 91, died on Tuesday in intensive care, leaving Egyptians divided over his legacy presiding over an era of stagnation and repression.
He was swept out of power as an early victim of the “Arab Spring” revolutions that swept the region in 2011.
Egypt’s presidency and armed forces mourned the former air force officer as a hero for his role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
The presidency declared three days of national mourning.
Mubarak’s coffin was to be airlifted from the Field Marshall Tantawi mosque to the family burial grounds, state television reported.
Dozens of Mubarak supporters, some from his village Kafr al-Meselha in the Nile Delta, gathered outside the mosque. Sisi, who came to power after leading the overthrow of Mubarak’s Islamist successor, Mohamed Mursi, has overseen a crackdown on dissent, which rights groups say is the most severe in recent memory.
Many of the activists who helped organise mass protests which ousted Mubarak are now behind bars or live in exile abroad.
Sisi’s supporters say a crackdown was needed to stabilise the country after the turmoil that followed 2011.
Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the 18-day revolt in 2011, but was freed in 2017 after being cleared of those charges.
He was convicted in 2015, along with his sons, of diverting public funds to upgrade family properties. They were sentenced to three years in jail.
Egyptian newspapers ran front page pictures of Mubarak, while state TV showed excerpts of previous speeches.
This was a stark contrast to the treatment of his successor, Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, who lasted only a year in office before the army toppled him.
Mursi died last year after collapsing in court while on trial on espionage charges.