Hosni
Mubarak, Egypt's president for almost 30 years who stepped down after a popular
revolution in 2011, has died. He was 91.
Mubarak
served as Egypt's fourth president starting in 1981 until his ouster in what
became known as the Arab Spring revolution.
He
was jailed for years after the uprising, but was freed in 2017 after being
acquitted of most charges. The acquittal stunned many Egyptians, thousands of
whom poured into central Cairo to show their anger against the court.
The Arab Spring protests convulsed autocratic
regimes across the Middle East.
State television
reported on Tuesday that Mubarak died weeks after undergoing surgery. His
brother-in-law, General Mounir Thabet, told AFP news agency he passed away at Cairo's Galaa military hospital.
Throughout his rule, he was a stalwart US ally,
a bullwark against armed groups, and guardian of Egypt's peace with Israel.
But to the
tens of thousands of young Egyptians who rallied for 18 days of unprecedented
street protests in Cairo's central Tahrir Square and elsewhere in 2011, Mubarak
was a relic, a latter-day pharaoh.
Mubarak was
born in a rural village in the Nile Delta in 1928. He left behind a complicated
legacy as his rule was partly characterised by corruption, police brutality,
political repression, and entrenched economic problems.
The former
president had long maintained his innocence and said history would judge him a patriot
who served his country selflessly.
He joined the Egyptian air force in 1949,
graduating as a pilot the following year. He rose through the ranks to become
the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian air force in 1972.
Mubarak became a national hero the following
year with reports that the Egyptian air force dealt a substantial blow to
Israeli forces in Sinai during the Yom Kippur War.
His harsh
stance on security enabled him to maintain the peace treaty with Israel.
Under his rule, Egypt
remained a key United States ally in the region - receiving $1.3bn a year in US
military aid by 2011.
Mubarak had been sentenced to life in prison in
2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the 18-day revolt.
An appeals
court ordered a retrial and the case against Mubarak and his senior officials
was dropped. He was finally acquitted in 2017.
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.
Since his
arrest in April 2011, Mubarak spent the nearly six years in jail in hospitals.
Following his release, he was taken to an apartment in Cairo's Heliopolis
district.
Many
Egyptians who lived through Mubarak's time in power view it as a period of
autocracy and crony capitalism. His overthrow led to Egypt's first free
election, which brought in president Mohamed Morsi.
Morsi lasted
only a year in office after mass protests in 2013 led to his overthrow by then
defence chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is now president.
Mubarak-era
figures, meanwhile, are gradually being cleared of charges, and laws limiting
political freedoms have raised fears among activists that the old regime is
back.
Mubarak is
survived by his wife, Suzanne, and his sons, Gamal and Alaa. - AFP
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