From pharaoh to prisoner: Hosni Mubarak given life sentence for murder

Daily Telegraph ^ | 5:46PM BST 02 Jun 2012 | Nick Meo, Cairo

[Olog-hai]

For nearly 30 years he was the pharaoh-like ruler whose word was law; the plunderer of billions of pounds of government money and controller of Egypt’s brutal police state.

On Saturday night Hosni Mubarak began a new life as a convicted murderer.

A broken and humiliated man of 84, he was flown by helicopter to Torah prison—where many of his enemies had once been jailed—just two hours after hearing a Cairo judge pronounce a life sentence on him for complicity in the murder of 850 protesters.

He appeared to be in tears and at first refused to leave the plane as he realized that he had not been taken to the military hospital where he had spent most of the nine months since his trial began.

Amid rumors that he might have suffered a fresh heart attack, he was on Saturday evening beginning a life sentence in the hospital wing of the Cairo prison—the first leader toppled by his own people in the Arab Spring to attend his own trial and be incarcerated in one of his own prisons.

Also convicted alongside him was Habib al-Adly, the former interior minister and a loyal Mubarak ally, who had been in charge of the nation’s internal security as police cracked down on demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, and in town and cities across Egypt, during a week of intense violence at the end of January last year. …

[Olog-hai]

Looks like this Telegraph writer is way left; this reads like a BBC or Guardian account. The man should have been helped by the USA more instead of attacked, given what was let out of the cage after he was forced to resign.

[Uncle Chip]

All the more reason why the Assad regime in Syria will dig in hard and not let loose of power.

[Gay State Conservative]

Recent events strongly suggest that,not matter how bad Mubarek may have been,there are those in Egypt who are far,far worse.

[Uncle Slayton]

For years, Mubarak was a stalwart US ally and a democratic leader in his country and now a new regime who was perhaps murdered millions of Christians in Egypt have sentenced him to life in prison for the murder of a mere 800 miscreants who took to the Cairo streets in violent protest.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I agree.

[Olog-hai]

Mubarak was keeping the lid on those people, just like the Shah in Iran was keeping the lid on the terrorists there. If there were “democratic” elections at any time before 1/25/11, the Muslim Brotherhood would have been voted into power far, far sooner—and they were trying to sidestep Mubarak’s ban on the MB by forming non-MB parties. People like Nasser, going way back, called themselves “national socialists”—and that seems to get lost in the liberal/leftist rewrite of history . . .

[Yaelle]

This is sad. Not that he was so great but because every evidence says things will be FAR WORSE in the future.

[dragnet2]

The man should have been helped by the USA more instead of attacked

What do you mean?

We gave this guy tens of billions in U.S. tax dollars.

[LibWhacker]

Exactly what I was thinking. Now the Egyptian people will be able to experience what a real tyranny of the worst kind is.

[Olog-hai]

I’m referring to the assaults on his position in public calling for him to make his elections more “open” so-called, when that really meant turning them into a free-for-all where the tyrants like the Muslim Brotherhood would get voted for in a flash. Instead, they did a Carter on Mubarak, just like Carter himself did to the Shah. (And of course, Carter called Khomeini a holy man instead of what he really was . . .)

[Terry Mross]

Ululate? Is that what they call it?

[dragnet2]

We gave this guy tens of billions in U.S. tax dollars.

What more did you want America to do?

[353FMG]

(And of course, Carter called Khomeini a holy man instead of what he really was . . .)

.
And Bush called islam a ROP instead of what it really is.

Somehow we shy away from intelligent people when we elect a POTUS or perhaps intelligent people shy away from the presidency.

[Olog-hai]

Learn your history.

We also throw billions at the so-called “Palestinians”, who call for the destruction of the USA just as much as that of Israel. Do you have a point in pointing out foreign aid? Sometimes we have to do more than that for our allies, after all.

[Anti-Bubba182]

A lot of possible allies will note how the US abandoned him and note how we did the same with the Dr. Shakeel Afridi of Pakistan who helped us find Bin Laden. We should have done better.

[dfwgator]

The fact is that democracy is a terrible form of government for most of the world.

[Sherman Logan]

The guy is in his 80s and in bad health.

It’s not like he was going to be around for several more decades as a stabilizing influence.

IOW, things staying the same was not one of the options.

[Olog-hai]

Most of the tyrannies in the present day have the nerve to call themselves “republics” as well, don’t forget. The biggest one was the USSR, the “R” standing for “republics” . . .

[Olog-hai]

So you’re saying that allowing the terrorists to take over was an inevitable outcome that the USA should not have tried to forestall . . . ? I don’t understand.

[dragnet2]

We gave this guy tens of billions in U.S. tax dollars.

What more did you want America to do?

Why did you evade the question?