Ex-leader of Egypt free after detention
CAIRO — Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was released from custody Friday after six years of legal wrangling that frustrated activists who had hoped he would face justice for the deaths of hundreds defying his rule.
The ailing, 88-year-old Mubarak left the Armed Forces Hospital in Cairo’s southern suburb of Maadi and went to his home in the upscale Heliopolis district under heavy security, according to an Egyptian security official.
A criminal court ruled in May 2015 that Mubarak serve three years and fined him millions of Egyptian pounds following a conviction for embezzling funds earmarked for the maintenance and renovation of presidential palaces.
The order to release him was the latest in a series of rulings in recent years that acquitted about two dozen, Mubarak-era cabinet ministers, top police officers and aides charged with graft or in connection with the killing of some 900 protesters during the uprising.
Activists say Mubarak’s acquittal in the deaths of the protesters confirmed long-held suspicions that he and scores of police who faced the same charges would never be brought to justice.