Egypt’s former president Mubarak dies at 91

Source:Reuters Published: 2020/2/25 22:43:42

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (front) is seen in a court in Cairo, Egypt, Dec. 26, 2018. Mubarak testified on Wednesday in the retrial of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and others in the case known in the media as the "jailbreak trial," official Ahram Online website reported. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

Former President Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for 30 years, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, after undergoing treatment in intensive care following surgery.

Mubarak's son Alaa said in a Twitter post that included images of his late father that he had died on Tuesday morning.

Mubarak was ousted following mass protests in 2011. He was arrested two months later and spent several years in prison and military hospitals.

He was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the 18-day revolt, but was freed in 2017 after being cleared of the charges.

He was however convicted in 2015 along with his two sons of diverting public funds and using the money to upgrade family properties. They were sentenced to three years in jail.

In an early reaction, the United Arab Emirates' minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said the Arab world had lost a statesman who took significant national and historic positions.

Mubarak did not leave the country after his overthrow, unlike Tunisia's Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled with his family to Saudi Arabia after being ousted in protests that ­triggered the "Arab spring" revolts that spread to Egypt and elsewhere in the region.

In contrast, the Mubarak family has stayed in Egypt since 2011 but kept a low profile.

Many Egyptians who lived through Mubarak's time in power view it as a period of autocracy and crony capitalism. 

His stepping down led to an election in Egypt, which brought in Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.

Mursi lasted only a year in office after mass protests in 2013 that led to his overthrow by then defense chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is now President.

Posted in: MID-EAST

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