Leader who ruled with an iron fist
Hosni Mubarak Former President of Egypt BORN MAY 4, 1928 – DIED FEBRUARY 25, 2020, AGED 91
HOSNI Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years after the assassination of Anwar Sadat in Cairo in 1981 but fell victim to the Arab Spring uprising. Mubarak was sitting next to Sadat as vice-president when Islamic extremists struck at a military parade and was shot in his hand. He was sworn in as president eight days later.
Controversially he continued to support Sadat’s peace deal with Israel, which ensured $2billion was pumped into the stagnant Egyptian economy every year.
In the wake of Sadat’s murder he jailed 2,500 fundamentalists as well as leaders of the Coptic Church. He had no time for the Muslim Brotherhood, which strongly opposed his harsh regime.
Determined to bridge the gap between rich and poor he signed off the demolition of luxury weekend flats, including one which had been used by Sadat.
When a corruption cloud hung over his government, he dismissed his entire cabinet in 1982.
President Mubarak survived eight assassination attempts but his three-decade reign came to an end in 2011 when the Arab Spring movement took a firm grip.
Mass demonstrations filled the streets of Cairo, forcing him to concede that he would not be standing for president.After power was transferred to the armed forces, he was charged with being responsible, with his sons Alaa and Gamal, for the deaths of more than 200 protesters.
In June 2012 he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison but the verdict was overturned at an appeals court. He was later jailed for corruption and looked feeble in court, arriving pale-faced on a stretcher before sitting in a wheelchair in the dock.
In March 2017 Mubarak left a military hospital, where he was held under guard, to see out his remaining years at his home in an upmarket Cairo suburb.
One of five children of an inspector of Egypt’s Justice Department, he was educated at the country’s military academy and was an accomplished fighter pilot who was said to have become president by accident but relished the job. Once in power he proved very difficult to remove by enemies who viewed him as a corrupt puppet of the United States.
The families of 239 protesters killed in the 2011 Tahrir Square rebellion will never forgive him but history may see him as someone who improved the economy, lifted millions out of poverty and fought to secure peace in the Middle East.