Will Mubarak go free?
Hosni Mubarak may be a free man by the end of the week. On August 19, a court dismissed one of the few remaining corruption charges against him. Though Mubarak is still supposed to stand trial for the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his ouster, his lawyer successfully argued that Mubarak has reached the limit for pre-trial detention.
"All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours," Fareed el-Deeb, Mubarak's lawyer, said on Monday. "He should be freed by the end of the week."
"He who controls the past controls the future," wrote George Orwell. "He who controls the present controls the past." The struggle over Egypt's past and its future may soon take a turn that would have seemed unthinkable a few weeks ago.
Scarcely anyone had speculated that Mubarak might walk free, at least at this point in time, but his possible imminent release is just one of several signs in recent days of the dramatic shift in the confidence and assertiveness of Egypt's military leaders--and the appointed interim government that gives the military an aura of civilian legitimacy.
More at http://socialistworker.org/2013/08/21/will-mubarak-go-free .
