Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak was freed today from a military hospital after spending six years in detention for his role in the deaths of protesters during the Arab Spring revolt in 2011.
Mubarak, 88, had been convicted of causing the deaths of 850 protesters, killed by his security forces in Cairo during the 18-day uprising which began in January 2011.
But his conviction was quashed by Egypt’s highest court earlier this month and he was cleared to go home, but he was kept in the Maadi Military Hospital for observation.
His lawyer Farid El Deeb said today: ‘Yes, he is now in his home in Heliopolis.’
Heliopolis is an affluent suburb and his home is not far from the presidential palace from where Mubarak had ruled Egypt for 30 years.
The Independent reported that an explosion in Maadi, not far from the hospital, killed one person today, although it is not clear if that was connected to his release.
The 88-year-old was cleared of the final murder charges against him this month, after facing trial in a litany of cases ranging from corruption to the killing of protesters whose 18-day revolt stunned the world and ended his 30-year rule.
Mubarak was initially arrested in April 2011, two months after leaving office, and has since been held in prison and in military hospitals under heavy guard.
‘Yes,’ his lawyer Farid al-Deeb told AFP when asked if Mubarak had left the hospital on Friday.
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.
He was sentenced to life in 2012 in the case, but an appeals court ordered a retrial which dismissed the charges two years later.
Egypt’s top appeals court on March 2 acquitted him of involvement in the killings.
In January 2016, the appeals court upheld a three-year prison sentence for Mubarak and his two sons on corruption charges.
But the sentence took into account time served. Both of his sons, Alaa and Gamal, were freed.
On Thursday, a court ordered a renewed corruption investigation into Mubarak for allegedly receiving gifts from the state owned Al-Ahram newspaper.
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.
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