Hosni Mubarak (4 May 1928-25 February 2020) was Prime Minister of Egypt from 7 October 1981 to 2 January 1982 (succeeding Anwar Sadat and preceding Ahmad Fuad Mohieddin) and President of Egypt from 14 October 1981 to 11 February 2011 (succeeding Sufi Abu Taleb and preceding Mohamed Hussein Tahtawi). He was a member of the National Democratic Party of Egypt.
Biography[]
Hosni Mubarak was born in Kafr el-Meselha, Egypt in 1928, and he graduated from the Cairo Air Force Academy in 1950. He advanced to become Chief of Staff from 1969 to 1971, though it was his immaculate leadership of the air force as commander-in-chief from 1971 to 1975 during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 which earned him his promotion to the rank of air marshal in 1974. He was appointed Vice-President of Egypt in 1975, and assumed the presidency after Anwar Sadat's assassination. He remained loyal to the peace with Israel agreed upon at Camp David, despite his opposition to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. His efforts to improve relations with other Arab countries led to Egypt's readmission into the Arab League in 1989. Towards the late 1980s, he was increasingly challenged by the growth of Islamist fundamentalism, so that in popular elections he had to resort to increasing corruption to maintain his power and to keep the movement away from positions of political influence.
On 25 January 2011, "Police Day", tens of thousands of protesters assembled in Cairo and other Egyptian cities to protest against police brutality. The number of protesters rose to millions of people from all classes and religious backgrounds, and the protests, motivated by liberals, anti-capitalists, nationalists, and feminists, would later be joined by Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood. Cairo and Suez saw frequent violent clashes, and plainclothes police officers instigated looting by gangs. On 11 February 2011, Mubarak resigned in favor of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment on 2 June 2012. On 13 January 2013, the Court of Cassation overturned his sentence and ordered a retrial, and he was detained in a military hospital until being released on 24 March 2017. He died in 2020 at the age of 91.