Hosni Mubarak

Hosni Mubarak was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in the Egyptian Air Force. He served as its commander from 1972 to 1975 and rose to the rank of air chief marshal in 1973. In 1975, he was appointed vice president by President Anwar Sadat and assumed the presidency after his assassination in 1981. Mubarak’s presidency lasted almost thirty years, making him Egypt’s longest-serving ruler since Muhammad Ali Pasha, who ruled the country for 43 years from 1805 to 1848. Under United States pressure, Mubarak held the country’s first multi-party election in 2005, which he won. In 1989, he succeeded in reinstating Egypt’s membership in the Arab League, which had been frozen since the Camp David Accords with Israel and returning the Arab League’s headquarters back to Cairo. Mubarak faced popular discontent and protests throughout his rule, especially in the 2000s, due to allegations of corruption, human rights violations, and electoral fraud. He also faced regional challenges, such as the rise of Islamic extremism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the US-led invasion of Iraq. In 2011, during the Arab Spring, a mass uprising in Egypt forced Mubarak to resign and hand over power to the military. He was subsequently arrested and put on trial for various charges, including ordering the killing of protesters, embezzlement, and abuse of power. He was initially sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012, but was later acquitted of most charges and released in 2017. He died in 2020 at the age of 91.