Updated March 25, 2017 01:03:08

Photo: Mr Mubarak spent much of the trial in hospital but has now returned to his home. (AP: Amr Nabil, file)

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president overthrown in 2011 and the first leader to face trial after the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region, has been freed after six years in detention, his lawyer says.

The 88-year-old was cleared of the final murder charges against him this month, after facing trial in a litany of cases ranging from corruption to the killing of protesters whose 18-day revolt stunned the world and ended his 30-year rule.

"Yes, he is now in his home in Heliopolis," Mr Mubarak's lawyer, Farid El Deeb, said when asked if his client had left Maadi Military hospital in southern Cairo where he had been detained.

Heliopolis is an upscale neighbourhood where the main presidential palace from which Mr Mubarak once governed is located.

Mr Mubarak was initially arrested in April 2011, two months after leaving office, and has since been held in prison and in military hospitals under heavy guard.

Many Egyptians who lived through his presidency view it as a period of stagnation, autocracy and crony capitalism.

The overthrow of Mr Mubarak, one of a series of military men to rule Egypt since the 1952 abolition of the monarchy, embodied the hopes of the Arab Spring uprisings that shook autocrats from Tunisia to the Gulf and briefly raised hopes of a new era of democracy and social justice.

His release takes that journey full circle, marking what his critics say is the return of the old order to Egypt, where authorities have crushed Mubarak's enemies in the Muslim Brotherhood, killing hundreds and jailing thousands, while his allies regain influence.

Another military man, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, stepped into Mr Mubarak's shoes in 2013 when he overthrew Mohamed Mursi, the Brotherhood official who won Egypt's first free election after the uprising.

Photo: Mr Mubarak was originally convicted of conspiring to murder hundreds of protesters. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh: Reuters, file)

A year later, Mr Sisi won a presidential election in which the Brotherhood, now banned, could not participate.

The liberal and leftist opposition, at the forefront of the 2011 protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, is under pressure and in disarray.

Years of political tumult and worsening security have hit the economy, just as Mr Mubarak always warned.

Mubarak was originally sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the revolt.

An appeals court ordered a retrial that culminated in 2014 in the case against Mr Mubarak and his senior officials being dropped.

Early on, families of those killed attended hearings. But as the political tide turned against the revolutionaries, Mr Mubarak's supporters began to show up and many of the families started to lose hope that they would see justice.

Reuters

Topics: world-politics, egypt

First posted March 25, 2017 00:09:08