Egyptian Judges Drop All Charges Against Mubarak

CAIRO — An Egyptian court dropped all remaining charges against former President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday, raising the possibility that he could go free for the first time since being removed from office in the 2011 uprising that defined the Arab Spring revolt.

The court dismissed murder charges against Mr. Mubarak and his widely reviled security chief in the killing of protesters challenging his rule — charges that once inspired crowds to hang the former president’s effigy from the lampposts of Tahrir Square in Cairo and captivated the region.

The court also acquitted the former president on corruption charges, along with his sons and a wealthy business associate, figures who had come to personify the rampant self-dealing of Mr. Mubarak’s 30-year-rule as much as the president himself.

Coming five months after the inauguration of a new military-backed strongman, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, the decision amounted to the most sweeping repudiation yet of the claims of the Jan. 25, 2011, uprising that forced Mr. Mubarak from power with calls for democratic and accountable government.

“Today’s verdict indicates a very deliberate decision by the regime to continue on the path of rewriting the history that led to Mubarak’s ouster and closing the file on the Jan. 25 revolution,” said Hossam Bahgat, a journalist and human rights advocate who cheered on that revolt.

Mr. Mubarak, 86, who has been held at a military hospital because of frail health, appeared in court on a stretcher in sunglasses, a blue necktie and sweater. He remained stone-faced as the chief judge, Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi, read the verdict, and only at the end did he allow himself a smile as his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, hugged and kissed him in celebration.

A short time later, Mr. Mubarak was photographed waving to admirers from a hospital balcony, and in a telephone interview with a supportive, pro-government talk show host the former president scoffed at an earlier court verdict that had been handed down against him. “I laughed when I heard the first verdict,” he said, and suggested that some conspiracy had been behind the 2011 uprising.

“They turned on us,” he said, and when asked if he meant “the Americans,” he replied that he could not explain over the phone. “I can’t tell you if it’s the Americans or who.”  Read More at NYTimes