An appeals court on Tuesday overturned the last remaining conviction against deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and ordered his retrial on corruption charges, opening the door for his possible release.
The ruling, just days before the fourth anniversary of the start of the 2011 anti-Mubarak uprising, pointed to how far Egypt has moved away from its revolutionary fervor to “bring down the regime.”
The rise to power of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who has vowed stability after four years of turmoil and taken a tough line against dissent, has encouraged Mubarak supporters and upended the depiction of the revolution in the media, where activists are most often cast as troublemakers of foreign agents.
At the end of November last year, another court cleared Mubarak — who is to turn 87 in May — in the biggest case against him, dismissing charges of responsibility for the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising.
Meanwhile, hundreds of young activists and pro-change leaders from 2011 are either languishing in prison on charges of breaking a law against protests or have left the country.
The next steps for Mubarak are difficult to predict. Al-Sisi might be happy to keep Mubarak and his two sons in a state of legal limbo, where the ousted leader is neither outright freed or firmly convicted and punished — thus avoiding alienating either Mubarak’s supporters or opponents.
Al-Sisi, the former head of the Egyptian military, has carefully distanced himself from the former president.
After the court ruling in November, al-Sisi lashed out at Mubarak in a private meeting that was leaked by local reporters.
He said that during his nearly 30-year rule, Mubarak “wrecked the nation” and it would need another 30 years to repair.
Publicly, he said the country “won’t go back to the past” and ordered a review of the regulations that caused the case to be dismissed on a technicality.
Nasser Amin, a judicial reform activist who also sits on the National Human Rights council, said political authorities will use all means to keep Mubarak and his sons in custody — if not serving sentences.
“Despite all signs that things are going back to the past, letting Mubarak and his sons out is a different story,” Amin said.
“It means that all what happened in 2011 was a joke, and the current regime can’t afford this and it is not in their interest either,” he added.
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