Mubarak sentenced to life imprisonment Deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison on Saturday after being convicted of failing to protect protesters killed by police during the uprising that toppled him last year. Mr Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for 29 years, is the first head of state to be jailed since pro-democracy protests began sweeping the Arab world 18 months ago. IN Middle Eastern Politics & Society His former interior minister Habib el-Adli was also sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of the same charge. But Mr Mubarak and his sons, Gamal and Alaa, were acquitted of corruption. In a speech before declaring the sentence, Ahmed Refaat, the presiding judge, praised the uprising for having ended 30 years of "darkness and tyranny." Mr Mubarak, 84, lying on a hospital gurney and wearing sunglasses and a dark sweater in a defendants" cage inside the courtroom, remained expressionless throughout the hearing. After the verdict, he was placed on a helicopter and flown to the Tora maximum security prison, south of the capital Cairo. Mr Refaat acknowledged the paucity of the prosecution's case, which legal experts say was characterised by a scarcity of material evidence and flawed witnesses. Rather than convicting Mr Mubarak and Mr el-Adli for ordering the killings of 250 people, he sentenced the two men on the basis of failing to live up to their responsibility to protect Egyptian citizens, a crime under Egyptian law. Citing the weak evidence, the judge dismissed charges against Mr Adli's deputies, including Ismail El-Shaer, the former head of Cairo security, and Ahmed Ramzi, chief of the riot police, and several other security officials, prompting cries of outrage from the families inside the courtroom. Mr Mubarak and Mr Adli have 60 days to file an appeal. "If you don't sentence the head of riot police and Cairo police and you sentence Mubarak and Adl on the basis of a failure to protect, that gives defence lawyers on appeal a good case," said Heba Morayef, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. You've literally failed to hold anyone responsible for actually committing the crime. The judge dismissed the corruption charges against Mr Mubarak and his sons on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired, in what observers described as another example of the judiciary's incompetence and the haphazard nature of the case. On Wednesday, Egyptian authorities charged the sons with corruption in connection to a different case, the 2007 sale of Egypt's Al Watany Bank, effectively preventing their release from prison. "I believe they didn't have any good corruption cases against Mubarak and his son," said Alaa Nabil, a corporate lawyer. Most of the alleged corruption was done legally. It was legalised by the regulations. The court session, broadcast live on television, quickly descended into chaos, which has characterised the trial. Relatives of those killed in the violent crackdown against peaceful protesters last year cried foul. "The people demand the cleansing of the judiciary," they chanted. Scuffles between supporters and opponents of Mr Mubarak broke out inside and outside the courtroom, where riot police moved to intervene. The verdict, coming amid a toughly fought presidential contest, complicates the prospects of Ahmed Shafiq, a former Mubarak-era air force commander running against Islamist candidate Mohamed Morsy. Supporting the verdict could alienate Mr Shafiq's core supporters while opposing it could turn away potential liberal and leftist votes in the June 16-17 run-off elections. Mr Morsy told Al Arabiya television this week that as president he would keep Mr Mubarak imprisoned for life regardless of the verdict.