MPs vote against early election in new blow for UK's Johnson

UK PM insists will not ask for Brexit delay despite new law</s>On Friday, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was released after serving six years in prison following the overthrow of his regime during the 2011 Arab Spring.

Mubarak, 88, was released from a military hospital — where he has been treated for heart and stomach conditions — and sent to his home in a Cairo suburb, CNN reported.

In June 2012, Mubarak was convicted of complicity in the killings of more than 800 anti-government protesters during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison. Five years later, on March 2, Egypt's top courts acquitted Mubarak's murder charges .

Mubarak served as the African country's 4th president for 30 years following the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. His term was abruptly ended after widespread protests, originating from Tahir Square, forced him to resign.

Several Twitter users react to Mubarak's acquittal and release from detention:</s>Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was freed Friday after a six-year imprisonment following his overthrow during the Arab Spring. Mubarak was released from a military hospital in Maadi and is now back at his home in a Cairo suburb, his attorney, Farid El Deeb, told CNN.</s>The former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been freed from detention, six years after being overthrown.

Mubarak left a military hospital in southern Cairo and went to his home in the affluent northern suburb of the capital called Heliopolis, his lawyer said.

He was ordered to be freed earlier this month after Egypt's top appeals court cleared him over the deaths of protesters in the 2011 uprising.

Mubarak's democratically elected successor, Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown in a popularly backed military coup in 2013. Many see echoes of Mubarak's style of leadership in Egypt's current leader, the former general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Mubarak, 88, became president in 1981 after Anwar Sadat's assassination.

In all, more than 800 people are believed to have been killed as security forces clashed with protesters in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other cities around Egypt during the 18-day uprising that forced Mubarak to resign.

His release came at around the same time that at least one person was killed and three more were injured after an explosion in the suburb of Maadi in Cairo.

Security services said that the cause of the blast was not immediately known. No claim of responsibility has been made.</s>Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been released after six years in detention.

Mubarak's lawyer said the former leader had left a military hospital in southern Cairo on March 24 and was back at his home in the northern Cairo suburb of Heliopolis.

Mubarak's release followed his being cleared earlier this month of the final murder accusation he faced as part of a series of charges ranging from corruption to killings.

Overthrown in 2011 after 30 years of rule, the 88-year-old Mubarak was the first Arab Spring leader to stand trial in his own country.

He was arrested in April 2011, two months after leaving office, and had been held in either prisons or military hospitals ever since.

Mubarak was convicted in 2012 for the deaths of protesters at the hands of security forces and sentenced to life in prison before an appeals court overturned the verdict.

Mubarak's overthrow was a symbol of the hope for democracy in the region that emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings.

However, after Mubarek's successor, Muhammad Morsi, won free elections that followed, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled Morsi in 2013 following renewed mass street protests.

Based on reporting by BBC, Reuters and AP</s>Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was freed Friday after a six-year imprisonment following his overthrow during the Arab Spring.

Mubarak, 88, was released from a military hospital in Maadi and is now back at his home in a Cairo suburb, his attorney, Farid El Deeb, told CNN.

Mubarak dominated the nation for three decades as President but went through a series of criminal trials after being forced from office in 2011.

He was sentenced in 2012 to life in prison for complicity in the killings of protesters during the January 2011 revolt. Amnesty International said at least 840 people were killed and more than 6,000 injured during 18 days of street protests in Egypt.

Mubarak was tried again in 2014, but the court acquitted him and the co-defendants. In 2015, judges ordered him to be tried for a third time in the killings.

Earlier this month, Mubarak was acquitted of charges of killing protesters during the Arab Spring uprising. The Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest criminal court, upheld an earlier verdict, making the acquittal final.

Mubarak has been hospitalized for long periods with heart problems and stomach cancer since his ouster. He has sometimes appeared in court on a stretcher or in a wheelchair. Mubarak had been confined at Maadi Military Hospital for treatment since 2012.

Mubarak’s only standing conviction is for embezzling money to furnish his private residences. He and his sons were convicted of corruption. Last month, Ibrahim Saleh, attorney general of the East Cairo prosecution, accepted Mubarak’s request to include time spent in prison pending trial as part of his sentence in the corruption case, state media reported.</s>CAIRO — Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was freed from custody Friday morning after years of legal proceedings that frustrated activists who had hoped he would face justice for the deaths of hundreds defying his rule.

The ailing, 88-year-old Mubarak left the Armed Forces Hospital in Cairo’s southern suburb of Maadi and went to his home in the upscale Heliopolis district under heavy security, according to an Egyptian security official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

His release marked a new chapter for the former autocrat whose people rose up against him in 2011 and demanded an end to his 30 years in power marked by corruption, economic inequity and reliance on a much-feared security apparatus.

It also underscored how the aspirations of the Arab Spring movement that swept the entire region have bottomed out.

Mubarak’s ouster, on the surge of furious multitudes that filled Cairo’s landmark Tahrir Square — the epicenter of the uprising — was perhaps the seminal moment of the Arab Spring. But six years on, the mass uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria have each failed in some way, leading to civil wars or dysfunctional states.

Mubarak’s return home took place far from cameras and throngs of media that followed his court appearances. Two groups of security forces secured the route from the hospital to his house, according to the security official.

Mubarak’s lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, refused to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

But in remarks to Egyptian daily Al-Masry al-Youm, el-Deeb said the former president returned home with his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, and that the entire family, including Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne, came together at his house to celebrate his return and have breakfast together.

Mubarak was acquitted by Egypt’s top appeals court on March 2 of charges that he ordered the killing of protesters during the 2011 popular uprising that led to his ouster.

At that point, he had already served a three-year sentence for embezzling state funds while in detention in connection with the case on the deaths of protesters. A criminal court had ruled in May 2015 to jail Mubarak for three years and fine him millions of Egyptian pounds following his conviction for embezzling funds earmarked for the maintenance and renovation of presidential palaces. The ruling was upheld by another court in January 2016.

Prosecutors, however, reopened another corruption case on Thursday, linked to allegations that Mubarak, along with his family members had received gifts from the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper worth $1 million. The case had been closed once before but the prosecutors appealed and it was restarted.

The order to free Mubarak was the latest in a series of court rulings in recent years in Egypt that acquitted some two dozen, Mubarak-era cabinet ministers, top police officers and aides charged with graft or in connection with the killing of some 900 protesters during the uprising.

Some of those acquitted have made a comeback in public life, while others partially paid back fortunes they illegally amassed.

Activists, meanwhile, say Mubarak’s acquittal of killing protesters has confirmed long-held suspicions that his trial — and that of scores of policemen who faced trial on the same charge — would never bring the justice they demanded.

It has also, according to activists and Egypt’s beleaguered rights campaigners, confirmed widely-held suspicions that their “revolution” — as the uprising against Mubarak was dubbed — had effectively been reversed by the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a general-turned-politician, in order to restore the status quo in a country ruled undemocratically by men of military background for most of the past 60-plus years.

Powerful media figures loyal to el-Sissi have relentlessly vilified the 2011 uprising as a conspiracy and demonized its icons as foreign agents who pose a threat to the country’s national security. The fallen protesters, contend some of them, were shot by members of the now-banned Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

The attacks began soon after el-Sissi, as army chief, led the 2013 ouster of the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, after Mubarak Egypt’s first freely elected leader whose one-year in office proved divisive.

Mubarak’s sons were also convicted and sentenced to three years in prison in the same embezzlement case. They still face charges in an insider trading case, but both are free and have recently made a series of intensely publicized appearances greeted enthusiastically by hardcore supporters of their father.

While disillusioned by Mubarak’s acquittal and release, rights lawyers and activist in Egypt are likely to see it as a peripheral development in an increasingly military-run state.

“The trials, appeals, and retrials followed by acquittals were only meant to win time until the military took back power,” said Ahmed Helmi, a rights lawyer in Cairo.

“There is a great deal of apathy now, the only reaction you can find on the streets is someone joking about Mubarak being back home,” he added. “Mubarak’s return home is just … a tiny detail in the bigger picture.”</s>Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been freed from detention, six years after being overthrown.

Mr Mubarak left a military hospital in southern Cairo and went to his home in the northern suburb of Heliopolis, his lawyer said.

He was ordered freed earlier this month after Egypt’s top appeals court cleared him over the deaths of protesters in the 2011 uprising BBC reports.

Mr Mubarak, 88, became president in 1981 after Anwar Sadat’s assassination</s>Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was freed Friday morning after six years in detention. His lawyers say he has left a military hospital where he has essentially been under house arrest.</s>Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was freed Friday morning after six years in detention. His lawyers say he has left a military hospital where he has essentially been under house arrest.

Deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been freed after being cleared of charges against him. As NPR's Jane Arraf reports, his lawyers say the 88-year-old left a military hospital this morning where he had essentially been under house arrest.

JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Mubarak left the Cairo hospital early this morning - a free man for the first time in six years his lawyer Farid el-Deeb tells NPR. He's believed to have returned to his home in the upscale Cairo district of Heliopolis, the same neighborhood as the presidential palace where he governed from for 30 years. Mubarak was forced to step down when anti-government protests swept Egypt in 2011. It was part of the Arab Spring where young people and others across the region went out in the streets to demand better government and more freedom. Mubarak was arrested two months later on charges of corruption and ordering security forces to kill more than 200 protesters.

He served time for some of the corruption charges, but this month, the top appeals court ruled he was not guilty in ordering the killings. The former president isn't completely out of the clear. He faces potential charges on allegations he received gifts from a state-owned newspaper. But he's not expected to be taken back into custody unless he's convicted. Many Egyptians believed when Mubarak was overthrown their lives would be better. But it's been a tumultuous six years. The Muslim Brotherhood government was elected and then overthrown in a military coup, and Egyptians are struggling with the worst economic crisis in, years. Widespread arrests and a ban on protests around. Jane Arraf, NPR News, Cairo.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is released from detention in Cairo.