CAIRO – A judge dismissed murder charges Saturday against former President Hosni Mubarak and acquitted his security chief over the killing of protesters during Egypt’s 2011 uprising, crushing any hope of a judicial reckoning on behalf of the hundreds victims of the revolt that toppled him.
Yet instead of outrage, a largely muted initial reaction greeted the decision in an Egypt where unlicensed protests draw stiff prison terms and many remain fearful over their security four years after the nation’s Arab Spring revolt.
In his ruling, judge Mahmoud al-Rashidi cited the “inadmissibility” of the case against Mubarak due to a technicality. He said Mubarak’s May 2011 referral to trial by prosecutors ignored the “implicit” decision that no criminal charges be filed against him when his security chief and six of his top aides were referred to trial by the same prosecutors two months earlier.
The Mubarak trial, however, was concerned only with the killing of 239 protesters whose names were cited in charge documents, not the nearly 900 killed in total during the 18 days of the revolt.
Saturday’s ruling marks another major setback for the young activists who led the 2011 Egyptian uprising, many of whom are now in prison or have withdrawn from politics. It likely will reinforce the perception that Mubarak’s autocratic state remains in place, albeit led by Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former military chief who led the overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
Hossam Bahgat, a prominent human-rights advocate, said Saturday’s verdict would be used by the government to signal the end of the upheavals associated with the 2011 revolt.
“The regime’s message: ‘It’s time to look forward, time to move on, time to focus on building the nation.’ But I doubt this will work. It will deepen the grievance and feeling of injustice felt by many young people,” Bahgat said by telephone from New York.
It was not immediately clear whether Mubarak would now walk free since he is serving a three-year jail term for separate corruption charges he was convicted of in May.
Al-Rashidi, the judge, said the dismissal of the charges did not absolve Mubarak of the corruption and “feebleness” of the latter years of his 29-year rule. The judge praised the 2011 uprising, saying that its goals – freedom, bread and social justice – were legitimate.
He also said Mubarak, like any other human, erred at times and suggested that his old age should have spared him a criminal trial.
“To rule for or against him after he has become old will be left to history and the Judge of Judges, ... (God), who will question him about his rule,” the judge said.
Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb and Merrit Kennedy contributed to this report.
