Former Egyptian President Mubarak acquitted of killing 239 protesters

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, originally sentenced to life in prison for murdering 239 demonstrators who protested against his rule, was declared innocent by Egypt’s highest court. 

Egypt’s supreme court, the Court of Cassation, found former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, innocent of charges for the killing of 239 protesters during an 18-day revolt that ousted him from power in early 2011.

“The court has found the defendant innocent,” said Judge Ahmed Abdel Qawi on Thursday.

Mubarak was originally sentenced in 2012 to life in prison for conspiracy to murder 239 demonstrators who had revolted against his rule. His conviction was overturned by an appeals court in 2013 that led to his retrial in which a Cairo court dropped charges against Mubarak and his senior officials. The prosecution filed an appeal leading to Thursday’s ruling by Egypt’s Court of Cassation.

The attorney for the bereaved family members of the 239 slain protesters expressed outrage.

“This ruling is not fair and not just,” said lawyer, Osman al-Hefnway who also accused the judiciary of being “politicized.”

Mubarak, who had served as Vice President for his predecessor Anwar al Sadat, took power in 1981 after the latter was assassinated. He maintained the peace treaty Sadat reached with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1979. Mubarak, now 88 years old, returned to a military hospital where he has finished serving a three-year sentence for corruption charges.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News