Mubarak Cleared of Guilt in Protester Deaths in 2011 Uprising
Two people were killed Saturday amid an outpouring of public grief as police and protesters clashed after the overturning of a life sentence against former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in the deaths of hundreds who called for his removal during the Arab Spring of 2011.
An Egyptian on the outskirts of Cairo reacts Saturday after hearing a life sentence ruling for former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had been overturned. AP/Ahmed Abd El-Latif
Two people were killed Saturday amid an outpouring of public grief as police and protesters clashed after the overturning of a life sentence against former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in the deaths of hundreds who called for his removal during the Arab Spring of 2011.
The Guardian reports:
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 other corruption charges. His interior minister, Habib al-Adly, and several senior Mubarak-era police officials were acquitted at the same time, as were Mubarak’s two sons, Gamal and Alaa, and an exiled Mubarak-era businessman, Hussein Salem.
“It was not suitable to try him of crimes according to the penal code,” the presiding judge, Mahmoud Rashidi, said as he threw out the murder case.
The judgment overturns the life sentence Mubarak received in June 2012, and means he will face no punishment for allegedly sanctioning the murder of 846 protesters during the uprising or for allegedly profiting from the export of gas at below-market rates.
Read more here.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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