Mubarak Cleared by Military Government, and other News that Won't Surprise You

Look at that face! Is that the face of a murderer?
Maybe a mob boss. But not a murderer!

In what the New York Times is calling “a sweeping repudiation of the Arab Spring,” on Saturday an Egyptian court overturned all charges against former President/dictator-in-chief Hosni Mubarak, including charges of murder and corruption. This is the second legal victory (and likely the last) for Mr. Mubarak, whose earlier conviction for the murder of protestors in Egypt’s Arab Spring movement was successfully appealed. His lawyer Farid al-Deeb claims that he could be released any day now, as he has served three years in jail without a conviction already and is allegedly in “poor health,” though arguably he is in better condition than the thousands of civilians killed and injured in the 2011 protests.

Elections? What Elections?

Recycled leaders: Political cartoon depicts the cycle from
Mubarak to Morsi and now to al-Sisi

Two days into the Egyptian presidential elections, voter turnout is so low that Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb declared today a national holiday. Voter enthusiasm is wan, dissidents have been locked up in the tens of thousands, and no one seems to doubt what the outcome of this “election” will be. Former Defense Minister Abdel al-Sisi will almost certainly emerge victorious, both because he controls the state-run propaganda machine of the media, and because he has locked up, tortured, or disappeared all those who would be powerful enough to stand against him. In the seventh vote or referendum since Egypt’s revolution of 2011, it appears that the country is no closer to democracy than when it began the process of casting off authoritarian rule.

Al-Sisi’s only opponent in the election is left-wing Nasserist Hamdeen Sabahi. Sabahi ran in the 2012 presidential elections and came in third, but is viewed as mere window dressing to give the elections the air of democracy. Even though Sabahi’s chances of victory are next to nothing, campaign workers have nonetheless reported being blocked from polling stations, and prominent lawyer Ahmed Hanafi Abu Zaid was brutally beaten and arrested in a dispute with another campaign worker.