Ali Abdelaty and Maggie Fick, REUTERS
CAIRO (Reuters)—An Egyptian court has dropped its case against former President Hosni Mubarak over the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule and symbolised hopes for a new era of political openness and accountability.
Mubarak, 86, was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators, sowing chaos and creating a security vacuum during the 18-day revolt, but an appeals court ordered a retrial.
His supporters erupted into celebration when the verdicts of that retrial – which also cleared Mubarak’s former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six aides – were read out. The defendants had denied the charges.
Supporters outside court, carrying pictures of the ex-air force officer who dominated the most populous Arab nation for three decades, far outnumbered families of protesters who died in the Tahrir Square revolt that had embodied the hopes of Arab Spring uprisings that spread through the region.
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