Hosni Mubarak

Biography

Muhammad Hosni Mubarak was born in 1928 in Kafr El-Meselha in the Nile Delta. He went from the Egyptian Military Academy to the Air Force Academy, was commissioned as a pilot in 1950, and later trained on Soviet bombers in the Soviet Union and attended the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow. He commanded the Air Force Academy from 1967, became air force chief of staff two years later, and in 1972 commander of the air force; its opening strikes in the October 1973 war made him a national figure.

Anwar Sadat appointed him vice president in 1975 and used him as an envoy to Arab and foreign governments. After Sadat's assassination in October 1981 Mubarak became president, confirmed by single-candidate referendums in 1981, 1987, 1993 and 1999 and, in 2005, by Egypt's first multi-candidate election, which observers said was marred by rigging.

He restored Egypt's place in the Arab League, supported the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and joined the coalition against Iraq in the Gulf War. At home his rule rested on a permanent state of emergency, a brutal security apparatus and widespread corruption.

Mass protests in 2011 forced him to resign on 11 February after 18 days. He was the first Arab leader tried in an ordinary court in his own country; a life sentence for failing to stop the killing of protesters was overturned, a corruption conviction followed, and he was finally acquitted in 2017. He died in Cairo in 2020.