Full Circle

I was here in Cairo when Mubarak began his rule of Egypt thirty three years ago and I am here today again when he was acquitted of any wrongdoing in the deaths of hundreds of people who rose up against his iron fisted domination of their country during the January 2011 Revolution.

During the last three decades many thousands of Egyptians have perished through torture in his prisons and all were subjugated to his emergency law rule which came into power the same day he did and lasted until several months after he was deposed. During all that time not one meaningful vote was cast by any man or woman.

He will be released when his current sentence of three years for corruption is completed and end his days in Egypt a free man thanks to the judges who found him and his senior cabinet ministers not guilty of murder on a legal technicality; something to do with names not being included in some paper work at the right time.

Many will see the hand of his successor in power General Sisi, the latest in the line of Free Officers to rule Egypt which began with Naguib in 1952, behind today's events. Not the Muslim Brotherhood, certainly, but a brotherhood nonetheless.

So as things stand, no one has been convicted of the murders of the 239 people who were killed in Tahrir Square on or around 25th January 2011. 'What! Did they all commit suicide there?' cried one distraught mother tonight.

We crossed 6th October Bridge this evening a few hundred meters from the square and found balaclava-ed security forces dressed in black with pump action rifles in hand standing at every road junction as we crawled past in our taxi. I could have reached out and touched the barrels of their guns. Let's hope they stay silent tonight.