By Dina Zayed and Shaimaa Fayed, Reuters –
An Egyptian judge convicted former president Hosni Mubarak of complicity in the killings of protesters during the uprising that ended his 30-year rule and sentenced him on Saturday to life in prison.
Mubarak
It was the first time a deposed Arab leader had faced an ordinary court in person since a wave of uprisings shook the Arab world last year, sweeping away four entrenched rulers.
The ruling came at a politically fraught time for Egypt, two weeks before a runoff in its first free presidential election that will pit the Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned under Mubarak, against the deposed autocrat’s last prime minister.
Mr. Mubarak, propped up on a hospital stretcher and wearing dark sunglasses, heard the verdict with a stony expression. He had been wheeled into the cage used in Egyptian courtrooms, while the other defendants stood
Lasantha Pethiyagoda / June 17, 2012
Egyptians and the Brotherhood must ensure that no Western-backed puppet is installed again. The West(US/EU/Israel) will attempt to prevent democracy from gaining hold.
Rather it would prefer a dictator who oppresses his people, and who is loyal to the geopolitical interests of the West and Israel, not sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and is corrupt enough to misappropriate the second largest handout (next to Israel) that the US public forks out annually in the form of “aid”.
Mubarak was an ideasl partner in crime, for successive US administrations. They are miffed that Mubarak had to go.
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