Jailed for murder, Egypt's former dictator Mubarek freed


Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, who ruled the country under a dictatorship for three decades until being ousted after the revolution in 2011, left a military hospital on Friday where he had spent much of his six-year detention, his lawyer said.The 88-year-old was cleared of the final murder charges against him this month, after facing trial in a litany of cases ranging from corruption to the killing of protesters whose 18-day revolt stunned the world and ended his 30-year autocratic rule. Mubarak was first detained in April 2011, but has spent the nearly six years since in hospitals. He stayed at a Nile-side military hospital in the leafy suburb of Maadi, just south of Cairo. He put on trial on several charges, including corruption and murder of anti-regime revolutionaries, but he was cleared from the charges. His only standing conviction is for his role in embezzling state funds to redecorate his family's lavish residences.In 2012, an Egyptian court slapped Mubarak with a life sentence for conspiring to the killing of scores of demonstrators during the uprising that toppled him from power. An appeals court, however, ordered a retrial in 2014 and he was finally acquitted from the charges earlier this month. Powerful media figures loyal to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi have relentlessly vilified the 2011 uprising as a conspiracy and demonized its icons as foreign agents who pose a threat to the country's national security. The attacks began soon after el-Sissi, as defense minister, led the 2013 ouster of the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader whose one-year in office proved divisive.