Egypt’s ex-President Mubarak dies at 91
Cairo, February 25
Former President Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for 30 years, died on Tuesday at the age of 91 after undergoing treatment in intensive care following surgery. The former air force officer will be buried in a military funeral but the timing is still unclear, a military source said.
Mubarak’s son Alaa said in a Twitter post that included images of his late father that he had died on Tuesday morning. Mubarak was ousted following mass protests in 2011. He was arrested two months later and spent several years in prison and military hospitals.
He was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the 18-day revolt, but was freed in 2017 after being cleared of the charges. He was however convicted in 2015 along with his two sons of diverting public funds and using the money to upgrade family properties. They were sentenced to three years in jail.
In an early reaction, the United Arab Emirates’ minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said the Arab world had lost a statesman who took significant national and historic positions. Mubarak did not leave the country after his overthrow, unlike Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled with his family to Saudi Arabia after being ousted in protests that triggered the “Arab spring” revolts that spread to Egypt and elsewhere in the region. — Reuters
