Amnesty condemns acquittal of Mubarak aides

Leading rights group Amnesty International on Saturday condemned the acquittal of a number of senior aides to deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, but praised the life sentence given to the former dictator.

Mubarak was convicted of failing to stop the killing of unarmed pro-democracy protesters in the country last year, with a judge saying he could expect to spend the rest of his life in jail.

Mubarak's former interior minister Habib al-Adly was also given a life sentence but six senior security officials, including former head of the now-disbanded State Security Investigations service (SSI), were acquitted of any wrongdoing.

Amnesty said the acquittals had left the families of the victims frustrated and called for further investigations.

"The trial and verdict have today left the families of those killed, as well as those injured in the protests, in the dark about the full truth of what happened to their loved ones and it failed to deliver full justice,” Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa said.

“The Egyptian authorities must now establish an independent and impartial commission of inquiry to fill the gap that the court left open.”

More than 840 protesters were killed and more than 6,000 injured during the uprising that forced Mubarak to step down on 11 February 2011.

Mubarak's lawyers declared that they would appeal the sentence, with Yasser Bahr, a senior member of Mubarak's defense team saying: "we will win, one million percent."

The prosecution also raised concerns that he could win on appeal, and suggested Egypt's judiciary was not fully independent.

(Al-Akhbar)