Hosni Mubarak to be freed within days, lawyer says
August 21, 2013
CAIRO – News of Mubarak’s imminent release looks likely to inflame highly volatile mood in Egypt following five days of bloodshed.
Hosni Mubarak, who is 85 and in poor health, still faces retrial on charges of complicity in the murder of protesters during his overthrow. Ex-Egyptian president overthrown in the 2011 revolution, is likely to be freed from detention within days.
Judicial authorities ruled on Monday that he had already spent too long in custody after one of the charges against him was dropped. News of Mubarak’s imminent release looks likely to inflame a highly volatile mood in Egypt. It comes after the army’s clearance of two Cairo protest camps last week, which sparked bloodshed in which at least 900 people have been killed, and unprecedented polarisation following the military’s removal of the elected Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, last month.