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Egypt held full-honours military funeral yesterday for the country’s former autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, who ruled for decades before he was ousted in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that swept much of the region.
The funeral, replete with cannon fire and a horse-drawn carriage carrying his coffin, highlighted the wartime achievements of Mubarak. It comes as part of a government effort to make Mubarak’s military career his legacy, rather than his time in office.
Egypt’s current President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, attended briefly, offering condolences and shaking hands with Mubarak’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, and his wife Suzanne. Mubarak’s body was later placed in a tomb a few kilometers away at his family’s cemetery in Heliopolis, an upscale Cairo district that was Mubarak’s home for most of his rule and where he lived quietly until his death.
A horse carriage carrying Mubarak’s casket, wrapped in the Egyptian flag, left the mosque after afternoon prayers, to a slow military march. His sons, wealthy businessman Alaa and Mubarak’s one-time heir apparent Gamal, stood in the front row alongside several Mubarak-era ministers.
The 91-year-old Mubarak died on Tuesday at a Cairo military hospital from heart and kidney complications, according to medical documents obtained by The Associated Press. He was admitted to hospital on Jan. 21 with intestinal obstruction and underwent surgery, after which he was treated in intensive care.
The country’s state television channel, meanwhile, maintained live coverage and played footage of Mubarak in his younger, pre-office days, lauding him for his role as commander of the air force during the country’s 1973 war with Israel. As president, Mubarak would later solidify peace with their onetime enemy.
Mubarak, who held on to the presidency for more than 30 years, carried out a brutal campaign against Islamist militants, but also allowed for minimal political dissent from his opponents. Under his rule, Egypt’s security branches grew into formidable forces with little civilian oversight, known for their human rights violations. And although he oversaw an opening of the country’s economy, much of the country’s population slid further into poverty during his time in office.
Nonetheless, the former president still enjoys a degree popularity among many Egyptians, who have painted him as a paternal figure. At the height of the 2011 uprising, his supporters would sometimes violently clash with pro-democracy protesters.
