Mubarak’s release angers many

Last updated: August 22, 2013 6:33 pm

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Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, behind the defendant's cage at the Police Academy in Cairo on June 8, 2013 (AFP/File)

Various movements and human rights groups have denounced the Wednesday decision to release former president Hosni Mubarak from state detention.

Tamarod communication official Mohamed Abdel Aziz condemned the decision in a statement on the movement’s Facebook page; “There is no turning back after 30 June 2013 or 25 January 2011,” he said, adding that “the revolution emerged originally against Mubarak’s regime.”

The Revolutionary Socialists announced in a statement that they would protest Mubarak’s release in front of the High Court building, promising that “the revolution will continue until the people announce their own revolutionary courts”.

The group blamed Hussein Tantawi’s Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and ousted president Mohamed Morsi for the former president’s release. It also claimed that current defence minister Abdel Fatah El Sisi was “the bloodiest counter-revolution representative”.

6^th of April Youth movement (led by Ahmed Maher) said in a statement that Mubarak’s release “is a victory for poverty, illiteracy and suppression” and is the “crowning of the revolution’s deviation from its path.“ The group also said that it would join the Revolutionary Socialists’ Friday protest.

6^th of April Youth spokesman Ahmed Bassiouny said that Mubarak should have been tried in a revolutionary court for “the crimes that occurred from 25 January 2011 to 11 February 2011.”

The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) filed a complaint with the general prosecutor’s office, charging both Mubarak and former minister of interior Habib El Adly of torture during the former president’s 30-year tenure, according to a Thursday statement from the group.

EOHR president, Hafez Abu Se’da said that a goal of the 2011 revolution was to abolish torture, adding that the crimes in January 2011 must be investigated.

Mubarak’s expected release to house arrest follows the passing of the legal duration of detention before a verdict. He is facing charges related to deaths of demonstrators in 2011. On Wednesday the former president was exonerated on charges of misuse of public funds.