CAIRO: President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has said Egypt will never return to the past and is charting a new future, after a court dismissed murder charges against former leader Hosni Mubarak.
A Cairo court on Saturday dropped the charges over the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended three decades of autocratic Mubarak rule. Seven of his security commanders, including feared former interior minister Habib Al Adly, were also acquitted over the deaths of some of the roughly 800 people killed during the revolt.
Corruption charges against Mubarak’s sons Alaa and Gamal were also dropped.
In a statement issued late on Sunday, Sisi said “the new Egypt, which emerged from the January 25 and June 30 revolutions, is on a path to establish a modern democratic state based on justice, freedom, equality and a renunciation of corruption”.
“It is on an aspirational path to the future and can never go back to the past.” Sisi said he had instructed Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab to review the provisions for compensation for the families of “martyrs and those wounded in the revolution”.
After Saturday’s verdict, Sisi said he had also asked the legal reform committee to examine amendments to the code of criminal procedure, as recommended by the court.
During the 2011 uprising, hundreds of thousands of people protested daily, demanding that Mubarak step down. After he resigned they continued to stage demonstrations, insisting that he face trial. More than 1,000 protesters protesting against Saturday’s verdict at an entrance to Cairo’s Tahrir Square were dispersed by police firing tear gas.
Dozens of people were also arrested but later freed. Sisi, who was Mubarak’s intelligence chief, won a landslide victory in a May presidential election after crushing his Islamist and secularist opponents. As army chief he removed Mubarak’s successor, Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July 2013.
Since Mursi’s ouster, a crackdown on his supporters has left at least 1,400 dead and seen more than 15,000 imprisoned. Dozens have also been sentenced to death after speedy mass trials.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian judge sentenced the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and 25 others to three years in jail for insulting the court. The judge, Shaaban Al Shamy, decided to punish the defendants after a number of them began chanting “void, void” in response to some of his remarks.
Among the most prominent people sentenced were Rashad Al Bayoumi, the Brotherhood’s deputy general guide, Saad Al Katatni, the former parliament speaker and ex-parliamentarians Mohamed Beltagy, Sobhi Saleh, and Essam Erian. The judge also fined them 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,399) each. Mursi, who was among those being tried, was not punished by the judge as he did not take part in the chanting.
Agencies
