Updated
Egypt's former long-time leader Hosni Mubarak, who held power for 30 years until he was ousted in 2011 in a popular uprising against corruption and autocratic rule, has died at the age of 91.
Key points:
- Egypt has announced three days of mourning starting on Wednesday
- Mubarak has been mourned as a hero for his role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war
- The former air force officer will be buried in a military funeral
A partner of the West in fighting Islamists, Mubarak presided over an era of stagnation and oppression at home and was an early victim of the "Arab Spring" revolutions that swept the region.
He died in intensive care a few weeks after undergoing surgery last month and will be given a military funeral.
Mubarak was arrested in April 2011, two months after stepping down, and in 2012 was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to murder some 230 demonstrators during the 18-day revolt.
He was in prison and military hospitals until 2017 when an appeals court ordered a retrial and the case against the former leader and his senior officials was dropped.
He was, however, convicted in 2015 along with his two sons of diverting public funds and using the money to upgrade family properties. They were sentenced to three years in jail.
State TV said Mubarak died at a Cairo hospital where he had undergone an unspecified surgery, and that he had health complications but offered no other details.
One of his sons, Alaa, announced over the weekend that the former president was in intensive care after the surgery on January 23.
He later tweeted his late father had died on Tuesday morning (local time).
Mubarak mourned as military 'hero'
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offered condolences and praised Mubarak's service during the 1973 war with Israel, when he commanded the air force, but made no mention of Mubarak's almost three-decade rule as president of the most populous Arab state.
He announced three days of national mourning beginning on Wednesday.
"The Presidency mourns with great sorrow the former President of the Republic, Mr Mohammed Hosni Mubarak," he said in a statement.
It referred to Mubarak as "one of the leaders and heroes of the glorious October war, as he assumed command of the Air Force during the war that restored dignity and pride to the Arab nation."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed "deep sorrow" over Mubarak's death.
"President Mubarak, a personal friend of mine, was a leader who guided his people to peace and security, to peace with Israel," Mr Netanyahu said.
The United Arab Emirates' minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said the Arab world had lost a statesman who took significant national and historic positions.
Throughout his rule, Mubarak was a stalwart US ally, a bulwark against Islamic militancy and a guardian of Egypt's peace with Israel.
But to the tens of thousands of young Egyptians who rallied during unprecedented street protests in Cairo's central Tahrir Square and elsewhere in 2011, Mubarak was a relic, a latter-day pharaoh.
The protesters were inspired by the Tunisian revolt, and harnessed the power of social media to muster large crowds, unleashing popular anger over the graft and brutality that shadowed his rule.
In the end, with millions massing in Cairo's Tahrir Square and city centres around the country and even marching to the doorstep of Mubarak's palace, the military that long nurtured him pushed him aside on February 11, 2011.
Though Tunisia's president fell before him, Mubarak's ousting was the more stunning as the Arab Spring shook regimes across the world.
He became the only leader ousted in the protest wave to be imprisoned.
Many Egyptians who lived through Mubarak's time in power view it as a period of autocracy and crony capitalism.
His overthrow led to Egypt's first free election, which brought in Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.
Mursi lasted only a year in office after mass protests in 2013 led to his overthrow by then defence chief Mr al-Sisi, who is now President.
Reuters/AP
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, death, egypt
First posted