https://arab.news/62tpd
- The event will be low key because of Mubarak's conviction for embezzling state funds, source tells Arab News
- Unclear whether President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will attend
CAIRO: Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will be buried in a small military funeral, a source told Arab News.
The event will be low key because he went to prison after being convicted on corruption charges, along with his two sons, the source said.
The source was unable to confirm whether President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, would attend the funeral or if any other Arab leaders would be there. It was also unclear when it would take place.
Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades before he was toppled during the Arab Spring, died on Tuesday at the age of 91.
He had been in intensive care in a military hospital in Cairo for more than a month, after undergoing abdominal surgery.
Mubarak was cleared on appeal in 2014 of charges that he failed to prevent the killing of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising against his rule. But the legal proceedings linked to the uprising would drag on for three more years.
In 2015, he was sentenced to three years in prison over the embezzlement of state money allocated for presidential palaces. His sons Alaa and Gamal were also jailed for their roles in the scandal.
On Saturday, a Cairo court acquitted the two brothers, along with seven others, of stock market manipulation in 2007 during the sale of a bank.
Mubarak became the fourth president of Egypt in October 1981, taking over after Anwar Sadat was assassinated by extremists.
He stood down on Feb. 11, 2011 after 18 days of mass protests and handed power to Egypt’s military.
Born in the village of Menufiyah in the Nile Delta, Mubarak graduated from the air force academy in 1950, and became air force chief of staff in 1972.
In 1975, Sadat chose him as vice president, and after Sadat’s death, Mubarak assumed the presidency after a confirmation referendum. He renewed his term through similar referendums in the years 1987, 1993 and 1999.
He won a presidential election held in 2005 - the first held during his rule.
After his downfall, he was put on trial over the deaths of protesters and sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2012.
He finally walked free in 2017, when Egypt’s highest appeals court cleared him of conspiring to kill protesters. Most of his time in detention was spent at a military hospital.