Egyptian judicial officials have ordered former President Hosni Mubarak freed from jail, a stunning turnaround for the 85-year-old strongman who ruled the nation for three decades before being ousted in a popular revolution, and a move that could plunge the unraveling North African nation into further violence.
The announcement, which comes as Egypt is roiling with new protests following the July 3 ouster of Mubarak's successor, Mohammad Morsi, stoked fears of even more violent reprisals from the Muslim Brotherhood, whose supporters have clashed with security forces and torched dozens of Coptic churches. As many as 1,000 Egyptians, including 70 soldiers and police officers,have been killed in the last week in fighting between the Muslim Brotherhood and the nation's more secular Muslims and Christians. On Sunday, some 25 Egyptian police were ambushed and executed in the lawless Sinai Peninsula, where the Muslim Brotherhood appears to have aligned with Al Qaeda fighters.
Also on Sunday, 36 Islamists died as they were being transported to a prison outside Cairo. Government officials said they suffocated in the back of a prison van after tear gas was used on them as they rioted. The Muslim Brotherhood accused the interior ministry of killing the detainees "for their opposition to the bloody military council".
Mubarak, who is on retrial for the killings of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his ouster, will be released from jail in the next 48 hours after a prosecutor cleared him of a corruption charge, his lawyer Fareed El-Deeb told Reuters. Still, The New York Times
reported that the government could still find a way to hold Mubarak and that his release was not imminent.
reported that the government could still find a way to hold Mubarak and that his release was not imminent.Via: Fox News
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