Mubarak Sentenced to Life in PrisonBy MATT BRADLEY
Ousted President Hosni Mubarak sat inside a cage in the courtroom during his verdict hearing in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday.
CAIRO—Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister were sentenced to life in prison Saturday for their role in the killings of hundreds of anti-government protesters last year, making the former Egyptian strongman the first Arab leader overturned by the wave of protests in the region to be convicted by his own people.
In a crowded courtroom proceeding broadcast live on national television, Judge Ahmed Rifaat pronounced Mr. Mubarak and his former interior minister, Habib al Adli, guilty of accessory to murder and attempted murder of protesters. He acquitted six senior interior ministry officials who prosecutors had also accused of killing protesters.
The sentences for Messrs Mubarak and Adli, harsher than many expected, bring to a close a 10-month trial that has enthralled Egyptians. Coming in the midst of an unprecedented presidential election that pits a senior leader in the powerful Muslim Brotherhood against a stalwart member of Mr. Mubarak's old regime, the ruling may satisfy an Egyptian public yearning for symbolic justice.
But for others it also furthered the impression that Egypt's revolution has done little to reform or reshape the sprawling security apparatus and centralized bureaucracy under which generations of Egyptians have suffered.
Egyptians outside the courtroom in Cairo, Egypt, react after hearing from a car radio the verdict of ousted President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday.
Also during the proceeding, Mr. Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were acquitted of corruption charges related to the controversial purchase of seaside villas on Egypt's Red Sea Coast. Mr. Rifaat ruled that the accusations, which date to more than 10 years ago, had exceeded Egypt's statute of limitations.
Both men will remain in prison to face charges of insider trading filed earlier this week.
The convictions, which likely will lead to years of appeals, surprised many legal experts and ordinary Egyptians. Prosecutors presented almost no direct evidence during the trial implicating Mr. Mubarak in the killing of the protestors. They spent far more time presenting evidence on the corruption charges that Mr. Mubarak was acquitted on.
Viewers in the massive courtroom, which was especially outfitted to handle the ousted leader's trial, broke out into chants of "The people want the cleansing of the judiciary!," after the verdict was read.
Some criticized the ruling as driven more by politics than legal guidelines.
"There is no logic behind this ruling," said Rawda Ahmed, who monitored the trial for the Arab Network for Human Rights, a Cairo-based advocacy group. "The rulings should be based on law, but this is directed towards appeasing public anger. It is a political, not a legal decision."
In his lengthy statement before announcing the verdict, Mr. Rifaat seemed to set the stage for a long process of appeals. Mr. Rifaat attacked prosecutors for presenting unreliable witnesses who "lied" in court. The evidence failed to "prove that main defendants committed this act," the judge said, but that Messrs. Mubarak and Adli were responsible in their failure to halt the violence.
Mr. Mubarak and his co-defendants, including his two sons Alaa and Gamal, said nothing except to announce their presence to Mr. Rifaat.
The Egyptian state news agency reported Mr. Mubarak suffered what it described as a "health crisis" after his sentencing during a helicopter ride to deliver him at Tora Prison, a facility outside Cairo where several high-level former regime are held. Mr. Mubarak has routinely suffered health problems since his detention last spring.
In the moments before he read the verdict, Mr. Rifaat addressed tens of millions of Egyptians viewing the proceeding on television with an extended monologue in praise the revolution and the ordinary Egyptians who affected it. In the lofty tones of a classical Arabic poem, Mr. Rifaat scolded the defendants' for laying waste to the nation they ruled for nearly three decades.
"Mubarak's reign was a dark, black, black, black hopeless era that has given way to a new dawn," he said.
Still, Amir Salem, a lawyer who presented civil claims on the part of several victims' families, said the judge appeared to ignore some 60,000 pages of evidence he said offered for use in the trial.
"Yes, he gave him a sentence for life, but at the same time, within the text, he put the reasons for Mubarak to be innocent," said. He said he worried that, "Mubarak, within one year, will be in the streets again."
Activists complained that the acquittal of the six police officers conveyed a sense of impunity for lower-level government cadres who may have been closer to police efforts to contain the 18-day uprising early last year.
"The message to the security forces is loud and clear: 'You do what you want to do. You will not be prosecuted,'" said Khaled Fahmy, a political analyst and history professor at the American University in Cairo.
Mr. Fahmy said that the acquittals of the six senior officers could forestall a truly rigorous investigation into the circumstances of protesters' deaths and provide a boost for Mr. Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force general and Mr. Mubarak's last prime minister who has stylized himself as a law-and-order candidate who can restore order to Egypt's streets. A long prison sentence for Mssrs. Mubarak and Adly could satisfy those voters who are eager to move on from a tumultous revolution that has led to widespread insecurity and economic losses, said Mr. Fahmy.
"I think people will say 'Mubarak is done, fine, this is what you want. Now it's time for security and Shafiq can deliver,'" Mr. Fahmy said.
A statement released by the Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday afternoon, hours after Mr. Rifaat read his decision, said the verdict was meant to "cover up crimes, waste the blood of the martyrs and impede the establishment of truth and justice."
In the hours after the verdict was read, protesters filed into Tahrir Square by the hundreds. Most voiced disappointment in the acquittals of the security chiefs and the judge's exoneration of Mr. Mubarak on corruption charges.
In street cafes throughout the country, Egyptians huddled around television screens to await the final decision in what newspapers on Saturday heralded as the "trial of the century" and the "fate of the last pharoah."
Mr. Mubarak arrived at the court by helicopter and was rolled into the defendants' cage on a guerney. He wore what has become his typical courtroom garb: a pair of dark sunglasses, all-white tracksuit and, for the first time during this session, a beige jacket instead of his usual blue.
Thousands of police officers and military personnel in riot gear met hundreds of demonstrators outside the courtroom in a suburb of Cairo. The soldiers formed a tense barrier between the ranks of Mr. Mubarak's supporters and opponents.
