Lawyer says will go home “soon”
CAIRO- Former President Hosni Mubarak is still waiting for orders to lift his “house arrest” even after Egypt’s highest appeals court ruled that the 88-year-old was not involved in the deaths of demonstrators killed by authorities during the 2011 uprising that ousted him from a 30-year term in office.
The former president’s lawyer Farid al-Deeb told the daily Youm Saba that Mubarak “will return to his home within days” although it’s not been determined which of his several residences awaits him.
At the Causation Court hearing presiding judge Ahmed Abdel Qaw read out charges that Mubarak, 88, provided vehicles and weapons used to assault protesters and failed to act to prevent deaths during the 18-day revolt that ended his rule as Egypt’s longest serving leader.
“It did not happen,” answered the wheel-chair bound Mubarak who was whisked away from by helicopter back to his room at the military hospital in suburban Madi where he’s been confined since 2012 when public prosecutors first succeeded in obtaining a life sentence just one year after his overthrow. Mubarak’s lawyer, al-Deeb, argued that a 2015 court ruling acquitting former Interior Minister Habib Al-Adly of killing protesters in 2011 should be the basis of Mubarak’s acquittal.
Al-Adly was cleared of charges after claiming that police didn’t kill protesters, instead blaming members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Alla Mubarak, one of the president’s two sons who were both cleared of corruption charges in October 2015, was the only family member in the courtroom when the new verdict was announced.
Mubarak is still appealing some charges in a case called the “presidential palaces affair” by the Egyptian media -related to embezzling millions of dollars in public money. About thirty Mubarak loyalists who turned out for the hearing applauded the acquittal of their former president.
“The police were defending themselves. The president would never order the deaths of Egyptian citizens,” Nabil Ahmed, a 61-year-old civil servant told The Media Line. “Mubarak did resign. This isn’t Syria,” he said referring to the fact that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is still in power despite almost six years of civil war.
After Mubarak’s overthrow, Egypt held its first free election, which brought in Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. But by 2013, a deteriorating economy and Morsi’s measures to seize legislative and judicial powers along with attempts to Islamize secular state institutions led to mass protests.
After only a year in office Morsi overthrown by then army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who later went on to win a presidential election in 2014. For many young participants in both uprisings, the ruling was an expected disappointment.
“If the same chain of events that brought us into the streets happened all over again, would the Egyptian government be afraid to kill protesters?” asked 29-year-old Mahmoud Saber, a participant in the 2011 uprising. “I think the answer is clearly no.”
But Thursday’s ruling on Mubarak likely marks the end of the Egyptian public’s interest in their former president.
“People are more focused on the current administration and their own tough economic circumstances caused by high inflation and our devalued currency,” said Mohammed Soliman, a 25-year-old official with the opposition Dostour or Constitution Party. “The conversation today is about Angela Merkel’s visit and whether Sisi will succeed in boosting both trade and aid.”
In fact, the ruling might reverberate more in neighboring countries as marking a definitive end to the period of popular demands for wide-reaching leadership and economic change known as the Arab Spring.
“Mubarak’s acquittal is an affirmative indicator that true accountability isn’t a viable option at this moment in time,” said Fadi Qadi, a Jordan-based Middle East affairs analyst specializing in human rights issues.
“No one will be held responsible for their crimes or wrongdoings- not Mubarak, not Assad or anyone else,” Qadi told The Media Line by telephone from Amman. “This ruling has enshrined despair amongst the already shrinking group of advocates for political and social transformation.”