Guess who's back? Egypt's Mubarak set to be freed

Egypt's longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in the January 25 revolution in 2011, could be freed and allowed to go home within hours.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

13 March, 2017

Former president Mubarak waves from his room at Maadi military hospital [AFP file photo]

Egypt's longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in the January 25 revolution in 2011, could be freed and allowed to go home within hours, a judicial source told The New Arab.

An east Cairo prosecutor has allowed the full release of the former president after serving part of his three-year sentence.

Mubarak was jailed after a court in Cairo found him guilty of corruption in 2015, following a re-trial. He spent the majority of his sentence in a military hospital in the upscale district of Maadi in Cairo.

Farid al-Dib, Mubarak's lawyer, had filed a successful request with the east Cairo prosecutor to include the detention time Mubarak spent prior to sentencing in his total time served.

News of Mubarak's imminent release comes after he was acquitted over the more serious charge of killing protesters.

A judicial source told The New Arab the ruling to release Mubarak follows the court of cassation's verdict acquitting Mubarak.

If the court does not order his detention in relation to other pending charges, Mubarak could be allowed to return home in Heliopolis within a day or two, the source added.

"He will go to his home in Heliopolis," Mubarak's lawyer Dib later told Reuters. Asked if Mubarak would go home on Monday, he said: "No but tomorrow or after tomorrow."

Hundreds of protesters were killed in clashes with police and Mubarak supporters during the 18-day uprising in 2011, part of the Arab Spring protests that swept the region.

Led by then defence minister and current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a military coup overthrew Mubarak’s freely elected successor, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013.

Sisi, who is seen as sympathetic to Mubarak, has since presided over an often-violent crackdown on dissidents, with hundreds killed and thousands thrown in prison.