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Egypt holds military funeral for Mubarak

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CAIRO: Egypt on Wednesday held a military funeral for Hosni Mubarak, the country’s long-time president who was toppled during the Arab Spring protests.


Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades, died on Tuesday in a Cairo hospital aged 91.


Incumbent President Abdel Fattah el Sisi led mourners at the funeral, held inside a mosque complex in a Cairo suburb, amid tight security.


El Sisi, a former defence chief, Mubarak’s two sons and senior state officials marched in the funeral procession which was shown live on Egyptian state television.


A coffin holding Mubarak’s body and covered in the Egyptian flag was carried onto a horse-drawn carriage. A military band played as the procession moved past it.


Military guns meanwhile fired salvos in honour of Mubarak, a former army officer, during the procession.


Mubarak’s body was later to be transported from the mosque to be buried in his family’s cemetery in the area of Heliopolis in eastern Cairo.


Earlier on Wednesday, the body had been brought aboard an army helicopter to the same mosque. Egypt announced three days of mourning for Mubarak’s death, starting on Wednesday.


Mubarak was forced out of office in 2011 following 18 days of street protests that gripped Egypt as part of the Arab Spring revolts.


In 2017, he was acquitted of complicity in the killings of protesters in the 2011 uprising after a tortuous legal process that started months after his toppling.


Along with his two sons, Mubarak was convicted in a corruption case related to embezzling state money and served three years in prison.


Under an Egyptian law issued in 1979 for the army’s top brass, Mubarak is entitled to a military funeral for having served as the chief of the country’s air force during the 1973 war against Israel. — dpa


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