Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian autocrat toppled during the 2011 Arab Spring, left a military hospital on Friday where he spent much of the last six years in detention.<\/p>\n
The release of the 88-year old who ruled Egypt for three decades would have been unthinkable several years ago, but revolutionary fervour gave way to exhaustion and even nostalgia in the uprising\u2019s chaotic aftermath.<\/p>\n
Mubarak had been cleared for release earlier this month after a top court finally acquitted him of involvement in protester deaths during the 2011 revolt that ousted him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d his lawyer Farid al-Deeb told AFP when asked if Mubarak had left the hospital on Friday.<\/p>\n
He added the Mubarak had gone home to a villa in Cairo\u2019s Heliopolis district.<\/p>\n
Mubarak was accused of inciting the deaths of protesters during the 18-day revolt, in which about 850 people were killed as police clashed with demonstrators.<\/p>\n
He was sentenced to life in jail in 2012 in the case, but an appeals court ordered a retrial which dismissed the charges two years later.<\/p>\n
Egypt\u2019s top appeals court on March 2 acquitted him of involvement in the killings.<\/p>\n
Throughout his trial prosecutors had been unable to provide conclusive evidence of Mubarak\u2019s complicity \u2014 a result, lawyers said, of having hastily put together the case against him in 2011 following demonstrations.<\/p>\n
In January 2016, the appeals court upheld a three-year prison sentence for Mubarak and his two sons on corruption charges.<\/p>\n
But the sentence took into account time served. Both of his sons, Alaa and Gamal, were freed.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, a court ordered a renewed corruption investigation into Mubarak for allegedly receiving gifts from the state owned Al-Ahram newspaper.<\/p>\n
He is also banned from travel.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile several key activists in the 2011 uprising are now serving lengthy jail terms, and rights groups say hundreds of others have been forcibly disappeared.<\/p>\n
The anti-Mubarak revolt ushered in instability that drove away tourists and investors, taking a heavy toll on the economy and leading to nostalgia for his rule.<\/p>\n
His successor Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist, ruled for only a year after his 2012 election before the military overthrew him, prompted by massive protests against his Muslim Brotherhood group.<\/p>\n
Morsi\u2019s overthrow ushered in a deadly police crackdown that killed hundreds of protesters demanding his reinstatement.<\/p>\n
The military chief who toppled him, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, won election as president the following year.<\/p>\n
Morsi\u2019s overthrow helped rehabilitate some Mubarak-era politicians, including a former senior member of his National Democratic Party who served as prime minister under Sisi.<\/p>\n
Most of Mubarak\u2019s associates have been cleared in corruption trials, and police officers charged with violence during the revolt have been acquitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cMubarak\u2019s trial lasted six years and public opinion became bored of it,\u201d said Mostafa Kamel al-Sayed, an analyst and political science professor in Cairo University.<\/p>\n
Sisi and the powerful military have not fully embraced the former regime, and continue to praise the January-February revolt that brought it down.<\/p>\n
But critics say they have limited freedoms even more than Mubarak.<\/p>\n
Some who participated in the protests against Mubarak said they felt the uprising was in vain.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I found that all of that was useless,\u201d said Ahmed Mohamed, 29.<\/p>\n
Mohamed had been among the thousands of protesters who took to Cairo\u2019s Tahrir Square demanding Mubarak\u2019s fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cMubarak\u2019s time was a lot better in all aspects,\u201d he said after the prosecution ordered Mubarak\u2019s release.<\/p>\n
In the few years before his overthrow, Mubarak had begun to loosen his grip on political life and the media, allowing for some protests and criticism.<\/p>\n
But police abuses and economic grievances remained.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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