Cairo : Egypt’s defiant strongman Hosni Mubarak, cleared of murder and corruption charges in a retrial, has asserted that he “did nothing wrong” during his nearly 30-year reign. “I did nothing wrong at all,” the 86-year-old ousted president said in a telephone interview with a private television channel on Saturday, soon after a court dismissed a murder charge against him over a deadly crackdown on protesters in 2011, reports PTI.
“I laughed when I heard the first verdict,” he said of the first trial and the 2012 sentencing. “When it came to the second verdict, I said I was waiting. It would go either way. It wouldn’t have made a difference to me either way,” Mubarak told the Sada ElBalad TV station from the military hospital where he is serving a three-year sentence for corruption. He praised his 30-year rule before his overthrow in a popular uprising in 2011. Apparently referring to economic growth in Egypt, he said: “The last 10 years showed more results than the 20 years before, including telephones and so on, and then they turned against us.”
The court also dismissed separate corruption charges against the former autocrat, in a retrial held after an initial life sentence was overturned on a technicality. Mubarak was convicted in 2012 of issuing orders to kill peaceful protesters during the country’s 2011 uprising and was sentenced to life in prison. He appealed and was granted a new trial last year. Also acquitted yesterday were Mubarak’s former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly and six of el-Adly’s aides, who had been accused of being linked to the deaths of 239 protesters as security forces cracked down on them in 2011.
Mubarak’s two sons Alaa and Gamal also were acquitted Saturday of corruption.
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Protests Over Verdict, 2 Killed
Cairo : At least two persons were killed and ten others injured when police clashed with demonstrators protesting here to denounce dropping of murder charge against former ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his sons by an an Egyptian court, reports PTI.
Over 3,000 protesters took to the streets and gathered near iconic Tahrir Square late Saturday after Mubarak was acquitted of a murder charge by a court which found him not guilty in the killing of hundreds of unarmed protesters during the 2011 revolution that toppled the former strongman’s nearly three decades-long regime.
Health Minister Adel el-Adawy confirmed that two protesters died while ten others were injured. The protesters held country’s flag and chanted slogans against the verdict. Police closed Tahrir square to prevent protesters from entering and fired water cannons, teargas and birdshot to disperse the crowd.
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