Hosni Mubarak Found Guilty of Corruption, Will Probably Not Serve Time in Prison

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has been sentenced to three years in prison for corruption charges in an effort to legitimize the military dictatorship of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose regime has killed thousands of protesters.

Reuters reports that Hosni, and his two sons Gamal and Alaa were found guilty on a variety of corruption charges. The Mubaraks were previously found guilty of the crimes, but in January, a court overturned the verdicts, revealing the dubious nature of the Egyptian justice system.

This dubiousness was still on display in the new guilty verdict.The Mubaraks may not have to spend any more time in jail because they have already spent three years in prison as the cases against them proceeded.

This begs the question of why men accused of stealing billions of dollars from the state and its citizens should only have to serve a three year prison term.

In addition to these concerns about the legitimacy of the Egyptian court system, the overturning of the Mubaraks earlier convictions came just months after the Egyptian courts handed down hundreds of death sentenced simultaneously. These sentences were given to people who were demonstrably not in the city where they were accused to committing a crime. Additionally, the crime was more often than not, no more serious than exercising the basic right to freedom of expression through protesting in the street.  

The Egyptian government has also been accused of crimes against humanity for the manner in which it dispersed protesters in Rabaa Square in 2013 after the military overthrew the democratically elected Mohamed Morsi.

More than 817 people were killed as the military used live ammunition and armored vehicles to clear the square where thousands had gathered to protest the removal of Egypt's first democratically elected leader.