Hosni Mubarak (1928 - 2020) was an Egyptian military officer and politician who served as president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. [1] A former air force commander who took office after the assassination of Anwar Sadat, he governed for three decades under near-continuous emergency law, maintaining Egypt's peace treaty with Israel and a close alliance with the United States while suppressing political opposition. [2] He was forced to resign during the 2011 uprising and later tried on charges connected to the killing of protesters.
Early life and military career
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak was born on 4 May 1928 in Kafr el-Meselha in the Nile Delta province of Monufia. [1] He graduated from the Egyptian Military Academy and the Air Force Academy, qualifying as a pilot, and later trained in the Soviet Union at the Frunze Military Academy.
He rose through the Egyptian Air Force as an instructor and squadron commander, becoming its chief of staff and then commander-in-chief in 1972. The air force's performance in the opening strikes of the October 1973 war with Israel made his reputation, and Sadat appointed him vice president in 1975. [2]
Presidency
Mubarak became president on 14 October 1981, days after Sadat was assassinated by Islamist officers at a military parade at which Mubarak was himself present and wounded. [1] He immediately imposed a state of emergency, which remained in force for virtually his entire rule, giving the security services extensive powers of arrest and detention without trial.
He maintained the 1979 peace treaty with Israel while gradually restoring Egypt's standing in the Arab world; the Arab League returned its headquarters to Cairo in 1990. Egypt joined the coalition against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, and Mubarak positioned himself as a mediator in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and a central partner of the United States, which supplied substantial military aid. [3]
Domestic rule
Domestically Mubarak's governments pursued economic liberalisation from the 1990s, which raised growth rates but was accompanied by widening inequality, entrenched corruption and high youth unemployment. [2] The National Democratic Party dominated a parliament elected in contests that international observers repeatedly criticised.
He survived several assassination attempts, including one in Addis Ababa in 1995, and waged a prolonged campaign against armed Islamist groups. Political opposition, including the Muslim Brotherhood, faced arrest and prosecution, and press freedom and independent civil society were tightly constrained. He was returned to office in successive referendums and, from 2005, in a contested presidential election whose runner-up was subsequently imprisoned. [1]
Fall from power and trial
Mass protests began on 25 January 2011, centred on Tahrir Square in Cairo, part of the wider wave of Arab uprisings. Security forces and pro-government groups confronted demonstrators, and several hundred people were killed. [4] After eighteen days of protest, and with the army declining to defend him, Mubarak resigned on 11 February 2011 and handed authority to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
He was tried on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters and on corruption counts. Convicted in 2012 and sentenced to life imprisonment, he had that verdict overturned on appeal; the charges relating to the deaths of demonstrators were ultimately dismissed and he was acquitted in 2017, though he served a sentence in a separate embezzlement case. [1]
Death and legacy
Mubarak died in Cairo on 25 February 2020 at the age of 91 and was given a military funeral. [1] Assessments of his rule centre on the contrast between the stability and international alignment he maintained and the political repression, entrenched corruption and economic grievances that produced the uprising against him. [3]
