Egyptians should stand behind their president, says Hosni Mubarak

In a rare talk, Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak said on Sunday that there are “fateful decisions” that need to be taken by current president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and that Egyptians should stand behind him. Mubarak, who was ousted on 11 Feburary 2011 following an 18-day uprising, spoke briefly on the phone with TV host Ahmed Moussa on Sada El-Balad private TV channel in commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of the liberation of Sinai.

Mubarak reiterated that the army, headed by President Sisi, clearly “understands the sanctity of the national territory”.

The 86-year-old former autocrat spoke about his memories of exuding Israeli forces from Sinai, saying Israel was “scheming” to buy more time and stay in Sinai but that he turned down theses attempts.

“The future of nations can only be fulfilled by sacrifice, and that his generation sacrificed to liberate the Egyptian land,” he added.

Following his ouster, Mubarak was detained pending trial in a number of cases and spent the majority of his detainment in Cairo’s Maadi military Hospital, where he remains.

He is currently being retried for embezzlement of public funds originally allocated for developing communications centres in presidential palaces. The money was spent on the his private residences instead, according to prosecutors.

In November 2014, Mubarak had charges of complicity in the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising dropped. He was also cleared of other corruption charges.