The harsh home truths of the Mubarak hustle

Mubarak's recovery conveniently coincided with his acquittal from the last and most serious of the charges brought against him in the wake of Egypt's temporary awakening: being complicit in the killing of 846 protesters in 18 days by security forces.

It's old news that Egypt's Hosni Mubarak walked.

Months, even years, before he walked free it was almost common knowledge that it was only a matter of time before he did.

The world watched the first hearing in March 2011 in anticipation and glee. The judge saying "The defendant - Mohamed Hosni al-Sayed Mubarak" and the dictator answering "Yes, sir" echoed endlessly on television screens all across the Arab world during the former President's trial.

Yet, in the end he walked.

Egypt’s revolutionary spring was quickly followed by her summer coup. It may seem like the country has circled the bases of political change but Mubarak is back to remind us that the past six years are a sad mirage.

The fact that Mubarak barely spent any time in prison is not the most outrageous farce, it’s that he spent his time at an upscale military hospital that none of his victims could ever dream of being admitted to that really raises eyebrows.

The six years Mubarak spent in what was marketed as legal limbo were nothing more than a winding down of the public’s interest in the man who cast his shadow over their existence for some 30 years.

Today, the news of his arrival at his home in Heliopolis didn’t make it to the headlines of many of the country's major newspapers.

The irony is sadly lost on so many, he joins his military brethren in the Eastern suburb of Cairo only a few blocks away from the Presidential Palace he called home while the young men and women who resisted his tyranny rot in prisons and graves.

Enjoy your foul and ta'meya Mr. President.