Mubarak’s last conviction is quashed as court sends corruption case for retrial

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/13/mubarak-conviction-quashed-court-retrial-appeal

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Hosni Mubarak’s last remaining conviction has been quashed, after the former Egyptian dictator successfully appealed against corruption charges for which he was initially found guilty last year. A Cairo appeals court sent the case to retrial on Tuesday.

The move means Mubarak, whose fall in 2011 came to symbolise the initial promise of the Arab Spring, has successfully fought all charges brought against him following his removal from power.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for complicity in the murder of anti-regime protesters during the 2011 uprising. In 2014, he was also sentenced to three further years for embezzling millions of dollars that had been allocated for the upkeep of his palaces, and his sons, Alaa and Gamal, were jailed for four years.

But last November, a judge threw out the murder case, and now the embezzlement case has been sent to retrial. The convictions against his sons have also been overturned.

Mubarak, 86, is currently detained in a military hospital, after suffering from several health complications since his arrest in 2011. His lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, said he should now be released pending the retrial, as all his jail terms had ended, and he has exceeded the legal limits for pre-trial detention.

Millions called for Mubarak’s removal in early 2011, but four years on, that anger has been somewhat diluted by subsequent events. When Mubarak’s murder charges were thrown out in November, only about 2,000 turned out to protest – in part because of stringent new laws that ban unsanctioned public gatherings, but also because people’s frustrations are now directed elsewhere.

Mubarak’s successor, the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, was toppled in a second uprising in 2013, and many Egyptians are tired of the constant upheaval Mubarak’s downfall unleashed.

In a sign of public sentiment at the time, more than 20 million people voted for Mubarak’s last head of military intelligence, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to become Egypt’s latest head of state last May.