Ousted Egypt president Mubarak freed from detention: lawyer

Egypt's former leader Hosni Mubarak has walked free for the first time since being overthrown in the Arab Spring uprisings.

Hosni Mubarak

Ousted former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has left a military hospital where he had spent much of his six-year detention. Source: AAP

Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak left a military hospital on Friday where he had spent much of his six-year detention, his lawyer said.

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.

"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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Published 24 March 2017 9:14pm
Updated 24 March 2017 9:26pm
Source: AAP

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