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Egypt's ex-ruler Husni Mubarak is dead

2020-02-25T14:12:36.390Z


He was at the head of the state longer than any other Egyptian president. The world looked at his land when mass protests finally forced Husni Mubarak out of office in 2011. The 91-year-old has now died almost ten years after the Arab uprisings.


He was at the head of the state longer than any other Egyptian president. The world looked at his land when mass protests finally forced Husni Mubarak out of office in 2011. The 91-year-old has now died almost ten years after the Arab uprisings.

Cairo (AP) - Egypt's former long-term ruler Husni Mubarak is dead. He died at the age of 91, according to the Egyptian Presidential Office on Tuesday.

Mubarak headed the most populous country in the Arab world for almost 30 years. Then, in the wake of the Arab uprisings, day-long mass protests broke out in the country - and especially in Tahrir Square in the capital, Cairo. "El Rais" - the president - resigned on February 11, 2011.

Mubarak's son Alaa had written on Twitter on Saturday that his father was in intensive care. He was operated on in January. Mubarak had spent most of his last years in a military hospital in Cairo. He was last seen in public in December 2018 when he testified in the trial of his successor Mohammed Mursi. The funeral is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, the German press agency learned from family circles.

There were several lawsuits against Mubarak himself, in which he was partially sentenced to prison terms. In March 2017, the Egyptian Supreme Court cleared the ex-head of state of complicity in the complicity in the deaths of more than 800 protesters during the uprisings, and released him.

The son of an official from the Nile Delta became an important partner of the West after taking office in 1981, primarily due to his mediation efforts in the Middle East conflict and his adherence to the peace treaty with Israel. Human rights violations and postponed elections by the authoritarian ruler did nothing to change this.

Mubarak persistently expanded his power and managed to increase Egypt's reputation again after the peace treaty with Israel, which was heavily criticized in the region. In his last years as head of state, however, Saudi King Abdullah, who had since also died, increasingly contested his influential position in the Arab world. Egypt's economy was also hit hard by the 2008 global economic crisis.

Mubarak cracked down on Islamist extremists in Egypt. Many alleged radicals were arrested and locked away using authoritarian methods, especially in the lower classes. The Islamist organization of the Muslim Brotherhood continued to gain influence.

Authoritarian rule and lack of a say, but also rampant corruption, the starving economy and sluggish reforms met with resentment among the population. Young people in particular increasingly turned against Mubarak during the Arab uprisings in 2011. After a turbulent 18 days in which the world looked at the youth of Egypt and the mass protests at Tahrir Square, he had to resign.

Since then, the country has only partially come to rest. Islamist and Muslim brother Mohammed Mursi, elected in 2012, was overthrown by the military after mass protests in 2013. Since 2014, the authoritarian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ruled the country, which is in a severe economic crisis. Repressions against opposition figures and the media are perceived as tougher than under Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood are banned and persecuted as terrorists.

The Egyptian Presidential Office described Mubarak as "heroes and leaders" of the 1973 war against Israel, which restored Egypt's "dignity and pride". Mubarak had commanded the Air Force in the war, but then became an important mediator in the Middle East conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Mubarak a "personal friend" and "a leader who led their people to peace and security, peace with Israel". Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with neighboring Israel in 1979. Even so, relations between the two countries are still chilled to this day.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas praised Mubarak's support for "the Palestinian cause and the people in realizing our rights to freedom and independence," the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-02-25

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