The former Egyptian dictator whose overthrow came to symbolise the promise of the Arab spring, Hosni Mubarak, has been cleared of the murder of hundreds of protesters who called for his removal in 2011.
A Cairo court ruled on Saturday that it did not have jurisdiction over what it judged to be politically motivated charges, and dismissed the case. Mubarak, 86, was also acquitted of several corruption charges. Senior police officials were also acquitted, as were Mubarak’s two sons, Gamal and Alaa, and businessman Hussein Salem.
“It was not suitable to try him of crimes according to the penal code,” said presiding judge Mahmoud Rashidi, before throwing out the case.
The judgment overturns a life sentence handed to Mubarak in June 2012, and means he will face no punishment for allegedly profiting from the export of gas at below-market rates or for sanctioning the murder of 846 protesters during the uprising in 2011. With the acquittal of his police chief, Habib el-Adly, it means no one will be held to account for the state’s response.
For Egypt’s revolutionaries, the decision is the apogee of a counter-revolution overseen by the new president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who was head of military intelligence under Mubarak. “It’s very depressing,” said Ahmad Abd Allah, a leader in the 6 April youth movement, now banned, that led protests in 2011. “I saw the blood of the people who died in January 2011, and I carried some of them myself. What a shame for the judicial system, what a shame for Egypt as a state.
“But this wasn’t unexpected. The Mubarak era still hasn’t fallen. It hasn’t stopped killing – so why would they say Mubarak is guilty when they’re doing the same thing?” he added.
For others, Mubarak’s fate is less important; many are exhausted by the political turmoil that his removal unleashed, or angrier at his successor, Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, whom Sisi unseated in July 2013. The ruling leaves Mubarak convicted of just one crime during three decades in power. He was found guilty in May on charges of misusing public funds.
Wearing his trademark sunglasses in court, Mubarak’s face remained unmoved throughout proceedings, though his sons cheered and embraced on hearing the verdict. Contacted by an Egyptian satellite channel in the moments after the verdict, acquitted businessman Hussein Salem simply said: “Long live Egypt.”
