Egypt judiciary under influence of military: Pundit

Former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak has walked free from a military hospital, where he spent much of his six-year detention over a series of charges, including ordering massacre of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his 30 year rule.  A top appeals court cleared the former president of charges of killing of protesters.

This has already given rise to speculations that Egypt's judiciary system lacks independence as far as political issues are concerned.

Egypt has had a “military judiciary” that is not independent, because people wanted to see Mubarak brought to justice, says Hazem Salem, a political commentator from Cairo.

“The fact is Mubarak has been removed from office by demonstrations, he was removed from office by a revolution, this is the verdict of the people,...but in that case all the issues that pertain to politics in Egypt make the judiciary not independent,” Salem Told Press TV on Friday night.

The judiciary system has given Mubarak 25 years behind bars to please the public but when the situation has changed and when the army is back in office, they released him, the Cairo-based analyst added.

Mubarak was a dictator, who should be charged with crimes, he noted, but in countries like Egypt “injustice is justified” and illegality is being described as legality.

“If the judiciary is paid by the government and the government is not democratically elected and if Egypt has been having reports about rigged elections by all international monitors and if Egypt has had a record in Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and elsewhere during the days of Mubarak about brutality of police, impunity from punishment and all these human rights piles of records of Mubarak regime, you cannot say that the country was democratic or the system was caring for the human rights or that you had a sound judiciary system,” the analyst argued.

Meanwhile, Sherif Rizk, a political activist from Cairo, said he is surprised to see Mubarak in prison as the former president "was not responsible" for the events that happened in 2011 uprising in Egypt.

“The only thing he (Mubarak) was charged with was the embezzlement of public fund and then legally, according to the laws, he had to be freed,” Rizk said, arguing that Mubarak was not the only corrupt person in the country and the whole country was practicing corruption.

Read More:

• Egypt court orders corruption probe into Mubarak

• Mubarak walks free for first time in six years

Mubarak was originally sentenced to life in prison 5 years ago for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the 18-day 2011 revolt but an appeals court ordered a retrial that culminated in 2014 in the case against him and his senior officials being dropped. 

In January 2016, the appeals court upheld a three-year prison sentence for Mubarak and his two sons on corruption charges. But the sentence took into account time served. Both of his sons, Alaa and Gamal, were freed.

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