Background
Hosni Mubarak was born on May 4, 1928, in Kafr Al Musaylhah, Egypt. His father was a minor official in the Ministry of Justice.
1981
Cairo, Egypt
Egyptian vice president at the time, Mubarak with the late President Anwar Sadat. - Both dressed in military honor uniforms, Mubarak and Sadat attend a military parade on October 6, 1981, in Cairo during which Sadat was assassinated by a group of Islamist fundamentalists.
1994
Signature of the Gaza-Jericho Peace Agreement: Foreign minister of Russia Andrey Kozyrev, foreign minister of Israel Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin, president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat, and American Secretary of State Warren Christopher. (Photo by Frederic Neema)
2003
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah (L) speaks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at Sharm El Sheikh airport February 28, 2003, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Arab leaders are holding a summit in the Egyptian resort in order to address the crises between Iraq and a possible U.S.-led coalition. (Photo by Norbert Schiller)
2005
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
In this handout from Israel's Ministry of Defence (MOD), Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) welcomes Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz at the start of their meeting March 10, 2005, in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Egypt has agreed to deploy 750 border policemen along its border with Gaza in order to stop Palestinian arms smuggling into the Strip. (Photo by Ariel Hermoni/MOD via Getty Images)
2008
Willy-Brandt-Straße 1, 10557 Berlin, Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak depart after speaking to the media after talks at the Chancellery on April 23, 2008, in Berlin, Germany. Mubarak will also meet later with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. (Photo by Sean Gallup)
2009
Rome, Italy
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, delivers a speech during the opening of the World Summit for Food Security 2009 organized by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on November 16, 2009, in Rome, Italy. The summit runs from November 16 until November 18 and will see the participation of more than 60 heads of state and government. (Photo by Giorgio Cosulich)
2010
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, USA
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack Obama, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and King Abdullah II of Jordan walk toward the East Room of the White House for statements on the first day of the Middle East peace talks September 1, 2010, in Washington, DC. Photo by Alex Wong)
1981
Cairo, Egypt
Egyptian vice president at the time, Mubarak with the late President Anwar Sadat. - Both dressed in military honor uniforms, Mubarak and Sadat attend a military parade on October 6, 1981, in Cairo during which Sadat was assassinated by a group of Islamist fundamentalists.
1981
Cairo, Egypt
Mubarak votes in an October 13, 1981, referendum on whether he will succeed the slain President Anwar Sadat.
1985
203 Teraat Al Gabal, AZ Zaytoun Al Qebleyah, Hada'iq El Qobbah, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
Chairman Yasser Arafat (2L) meeting with Egyptian President Husni Mubarak, with PLO aide Abu Iyad (AKA Salah Khalaf) (L) at Kubbeh Palace. (Photo by Thomas Hartwell)
1985
Cairo, Egypt
British PM Margaret Thatcher (L) meeting with President Hosni Mubarak during her visit to Egypt. (Photo by Peter Jordan)
1986
Al Nadi, El-Montaza, Heliopolis, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
Mubarak meets with U.S. Vice President George Bush at the Presidential Palace in Cairo in August 1986.
1986
203 Teraat Al Gabal, AZ Zaytoun Al Qebleyah, Hada'iq El Qobbah, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
U.S. V.P. George H. W. Bush (L) speaking with Egyptian Pres. Husni Mubarak at Kubbeh Palace. (Photo by Thomas Hartwell)
1986
Cairo, Egypt
Egyptian President Husni Mubarak addressing parliament on police riots. (Photo by Thomas Hartwell)
1988
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, USA
Mubarak meets with U.S. President Ronald Reagan at the White House in January 1988.
1989
Mersa, Egypt
Mubarak meets Libyan Leader Muammar Qaddafi at the Egyptian border city of Mersa in October 1989.
1989
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, USA
George Bush (R) having a light moment with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Oval Office. (Photo by Diana Walker/
1990
President Hosni Mubarak (R) with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, touring a new conference center. (Photo by Thomas Hartwell)
1990
Prime Minister Li Peng (R) shaking hands with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (Photo by Forrest Anderson)
1990
President Mubarak (R) with Sultan of Abu Dhabi Sheik Zayed (L), arriving for emergency Arab summit on Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. (Photo by Thomas Hartwell)
1993
Al Nadi, El-Montaza, Heliopolis, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
Hosni Mubarak at the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt. (Photo by Barry Iverson)
1993
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, USA
Hosni Mubarak manning mikes during a joint news conference with his host President Clinton. (Photo by Diana Walker)
1994
Signature of the Gaza-Jericho Peace Agreement: Foreign minister of Russia Andrey Kozyrev, foreign minister of Israel Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin, president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat, and American Secretary of State Warren Christopher. (Photo by Frederic Neema)
1997
Cairo, Egypt
The Spanish King Juan Carlos of Borbon and Sofia of Greece during their visit to Egypt meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his wife Suzanne, 22nd February 1997, Cairo, Egypt. (Photo by Gianni Ferrari)
1998
Caiso, Egypt
Hosni Mubarak And His Wife Suzanne In their Residence In Cairo, 1998.
1999
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, USA
Mubarak and U.S. President Bill Clinton during a joint press conference at the White House in July 1999.
2000
Mubarak shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on March 9, 2000.
2003
55 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris, France
French President Jacques Chirac receives Egyptian president, Hosny Mubarak, at Elysee Palace in Paris, France on April 16th, 2003.
2003
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah (L) speaks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at Sharm El Sheikh airport February 28, 2003, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Arab leaders are holding a summit in the Egyptian resort in order to address the crises between Iraq and a possible U.S.-led coalition. (Photo by Norbert Schiller)
2005
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
In this handout from Israel's Ministry of Defence (MOD), Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) welcomes Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz at the start of their meeting March 10, 2005, in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Egypt has agreed to deploy 750 border policemen along its border with Gaza in order to stop Palestinian arms smuggling into the Strip. (Photo by Ariel Hermoni/MOD via Getty Images)
2006
Alexandria, Egypt
Mubarak meets with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Alexandria in September 2006.
2006
Paris, France
Hosni Moubarak and his wife Suzanne Moubarak in Paris, France on December 08, 2006
2007
Cairo, Egypt
French President Nicolas Sarkozy meets his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Moubarak in Cairo, Egypt on December 30th, 2007.
2008
Willy-Brandt-Straße 1, 10557 Berlin, Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak depart after speaking to the media after talks at the Chancellery on April 23, 2008, in Berlin, Germany. Mubarak will also meet later with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. (Photo by Sean Gallup)
2008
Cairo, Egypt
In this handout image provided by the Palestinian Press Office (PPO), Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) meets with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on October 27, 2008, in Cairo, Egypt. (Photo by Omar Rashidi/PPO via Getty Images)
2009
Rome, Italy
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, delivers a speech during the opening of the World Summit for Food Security 2009 organized by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on November 16, 2009, in Rome, Italy. The summit runs from November 16 until November 18 and will see the participation of more than 60 heads of state and government. (Photo by Giorgio Cosulich)
2010
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, USA
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack Obama, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and King Abdullah II of Jordan walk toward the East Room of the White House for statements on the first day of the Middle East peace talks September 1, 2010, in Washington, DC. Photo by Alex Wong)
2010
Palace of Sixtus V; Palace of the Vatican; Papal Palace
Pope John Paul II meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his wife at his private library in the Apostolic Palace on February 20, 2001, in Vatican City, Vatican.
2011
Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) meets with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak on January 6, 2011, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. (Photo by Moshe Milner)
Proyezd Devich'yego Polya, 4, Moskva, Russia, 119121
Hosni spent part of his training at the Soviet's Frunze military academy.
An undated photo of Mubarak as a young Royal Egyptian Air Force lieutenant.
military officer politician president
Hosni Mubarak was born on May 4, 1928, in Kafr Al Musaylhah, Egypt. His father was a minor official in the Ministry of Justice.
After primary schooling in his village and secondary studies in the near-by provincial capital of Shibin El-Kom, Mubarak attended Egypt's Military Academy and its Air Academy, graduating from the latter in 1950.
He completed the military training in only two years, opting to continue studying instead of taking his summer leave. He became a pilot and spent part of his training in the then Soviet Union. He also spent a year at the Soviet's Frunze military academy.
After education, Mubarak spent the next 25 years in the Air Force. He taught at the Air Academy and commanded Egypt's bomber force in the Yemen civil war in the 1960s. He visited the Soviet Union on several occasions and spent a year at the Soviet's Frunze military academy.
President Gamal Abdel Nasser named Mubarak director of the Air Academy in 1967, giving him the crucial task of rebuilding the air force, which the Israelis had destroyed on the ground in the Six-Day War of June 1967. Mubarak moved up to Air Force chief-of-staff in 1969, and in 1972 he became its commander-in-chief. He helped plan the successful surprise attack on the Israeli forces occupying the east bank of the Suez Canal on October 6, 1973, launching the Yom Kippur War.
President Sadat rewarded Mubarak's patient competence in 1975 by naming him vice president. Sadat disliked routine administration and enjoyed the international limelight, so Mubarak quietly took over the day-to-day running of the government. Mubarak presided over cabinet meetings, controlled the security apparatus, and became vice president of the ruling National Democratic party. Diplomatic assignments abroad gave him experience with foreign affairs. He was sent to Syria, Iraq, the United States, and China. His expertise was integral to the negotiations for the 1978 Camp David Accords which Egypt and Israel signed, ending decades of conflict.
Mubarak escaped with a minor hand wound when Islamic fundamentalists gunned down Sadat at a military review on October 6, 1981. Moving quickly to restore order and consolidate his position, Mubarak crushed an Islamic uprising in Asyut and jailed over 2,500 members of militant Islamic groups. He executed a handful, had others sentenced to prison terms, and gradually released the rest. He also released the more secular political figures whom Sadat had indiscriminately jailed in the September crackdown that helped provoke his assassination.
Mubarak only slightly modulated the main lines of Sadat's foreign and domestic policies. He kept the 1979 Camp David treaty with Israel and Sadat's close ties to the United States. Egypt regained the Sinai peninsula when the Israelis withdrew in 1982. Egypt remained cool to Israel, however, because of a minor border dispute, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and Israeli policies toward the Palestinians in the West Bank. In 1986, however, he agreed to return the Egyptian ambassador to Tel Aviv.
In 1987 Mubarak won election to a second six-year term. He was shocked and angered over the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. He thought the Gulf War could have been avoided, but placed that responsibility on Saddam Hussein. He felt that the Saudi Arabians were justified in inviting assistance from the West to protect their sovereignty. He sent 45,000 troops to the allied coalition, with the unanimous approval of the Egyptian people. After the war Mubarak's prompt actions and support boosted Egypt to the forefront in leading the Arab world.
Reelected president in 1993, Mubarak faced a rise in guerrilla violence and growing unrest among opposition parties, which pressed for democratic electoral reforms (the last free elections in Egypt had been held in 1950). He launched a campaign against Islamic fundamentalists, especially the Islamic Group, which was responsible for a 1997 attack at Luxor that left some 60 foreign tourists dead. In 1995 he escaped an assassination attempt in Ethiopia and in 1999 was slightly wounded after being attacked by a knife-wielding assailant. Throughout, Mubarak continued to press for peace in the Middle East. Running unopposed, he was reelected to a fourth term as president in 1999. In 2005 Mubarak easily won Egypt’s first multicandidate presidential election, which was marred by low voter turnout and allegations of irregularities.
In January 2011 thousands of protesters - angered by repression, corruption, and poverty in Egypt - took to the streets, calling for Mubarak to step down as president. Those demonstrations took place shortly after a popular uprising in Tunisia, known as the Jasmine Revolution, forced Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali from power. Mubarak made no public appearances until January 28 - the fourth day of clashes between protesters and police - when he gave a speech on Egyptian state television indicating that he intended to remain in office. In the speech he acknowledged the protesters’ demand for political change by announcing that he would dissolve his cabinet and implement new social and economic reforms. Those concessions, however, were dismissed by protesters as a ploy to remain in power and did little to calm the unrest. The following day Mubarak appointed a vice president for the first time in his presidency, choosing Omar Suleiman, the director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service. On February 1, under pressure from continued protests, Mubarak appeared on Egyptian state television and announced that he would not stand in the presidential election scheduled for September 2011.
Under continued pressure to step down immediately, Mubarak made another televised speech on February 10. Although it was widely expected that he would use the address to announce his immediate resignation, he reiterated that he would stay in office until the end of his term, delegating some of his powers to Suleiman. Mubarak promised to institute electoral reforms and vowed to lift Egypt’s emergency law, in place since 1981, when the security situation in Egypt became sufficiently stable.
On February 11 Mubarak left Cairo for Sharm el-Sheikh, a resort town on the Sinai Peninsula where he maintained a residence. Hours later Suleiman appeared on Egyptian television to announce that Mubarak had stepped down as president, leaving the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, a group of senior military officers, to govern the country. Upon learning of Mubarak’s resignation, crowds at Tahrir Square and other protest sites erupted in celebration.
Following Mubarak’s departure, the Egyptian government began to investigate allegations of corruption and abuse of power within the Mubarak regime, questioning and arresting several former officials and business leaders with close ties to Mubarak. Calls for the investigation to focus on Mubarak himself intensified, fueled by reports that the Mubarak family had amassed a fortune worth billions of dollars in overseas accounts. On April 10 the public prosecutor announced that Mubarak and his sons, Alaa and Gamal, would be questioned by investigators. Following the announcement, Mubarak made his first public statements since stepping down as president, denying the accusations of corruption. On April 12, while waiting to be questioned, Mubarak was hospitalized after reportedly suffering a heart attack. Mubarak was held in a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh after an official medical evaluation concluded that his health was too fragile for him to be transferred to prison in Cairo. In May the Egyptian state media reported that his condition had stabilized, although he needed to be treated for depression.
On May 24 the public prosecutor announced that Mubarak would stand trial for ordering the killing of protesters as well as for corruption and abuse of power. On August 3 Mubarak appeared in public for the first time since stepping down, as his trial commenced in Cairo amid heavy security. Although Mubarak, reportedly suffering from poor health, was wheeled into court in a hospital bed, he appeared alert during the hearing, denying all charges against him. In January 2012, prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty for Mubarak and several senior security officials accused of carrying out the crackdown. In June 2012 an Egyptian court found Mubarak guilty of complicity in the deaths of demonstrators and sentenced him to life in prison. He was acquitted on charges of corruption.
In January 2013 an Egyptian court ordered that Mubarak be retried for killing protesters and for corruption, citing procedural problems with his first trial. The retrial, originally scheduled to begin in April 2013, was postponed when the presiding judge withdrew from the case.
In August 2013, less than two months after the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and the establishment of a military-backed interim administration, the Egyptian public prosecutor ordered Mubarak’s release from prison in accordance with regulations prohibiting the imprisonment of criminal suspects for more than two years without a conviction. He was transferred to a military hospital in Cairo, where he remained under guard. Although Mubarak still faced corruption charges and a retrial for killing protesters, many saw the timing of his release, coming amid a bloody crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood and with Morsi held in indefinite detention, as a sign of Egypt’s return to military authoritarianism.
In May 2014 Mubarak was sentenced by an Egyptian court to three years in prison for embezzling public funds; his sons each received a four-year sentence for the same crime. In November 2014 an Egyptian court dismissed charges against Mubarak in the killing of protesters, on the grounds that the court’s jurisdiction had been invalidated by a three-month delay in the prosecutors’ filing of the original indictment against Mubarak in 2011.
On 2 March 2017, the Court of Cassation, Egypt's top appeals court, acquitted Mubarak of conspiring in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising. He was subsequently released on 24 March 2017.
Throughout the 1980s Mubarak combated Egypt's most pressing problems, unemployment and a struggling economy. He increased the production of affordable housing, clothing, furniture, and medicine. He also kept a tight rein on his officials, firing ministers at the first hint of scandal and fining parliamentary legislators for unnecessary absences.
Egypt's heavy dependence on U.S. military and economic aid and her hopes for U.S. pressure on Israel for a Palestinian settlement continued under Mubarak. He carefully offered the Americans only military "facilities" and not bases, however, and quietly improved relations with the Soviet Union, whose ambassador returned to Cairo in 1984.
All the Arab states but three had broken relations with Egypt to protest the treaty with Israel. Without renouncing the treaty, Mubarak patiently rebuilt bridges to Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization. It was Mubarak who prodded Arafat to recognize Israel's right to exist and moderate his extremist stance.
Internally, the military, the swollen government bureaucracy, the consumer-oriented upper middle class, and the rural power structure were still the mainstays of Mubarak's regime. The scattered opposition included Muslim idealists who longed for a theocracy, Nasserists and leftist who looked back to the populist redistributive policies of the early 1960s, and the New Wafd rightists who wanted further economic and political liberalization. Egypt's Christians, the Copts, remained nervous about the political resurgence of Islam. Mubarak's National Democratic party won a comfortable majority in the May 1984 elections. He told U.S. News and World Report that in Egypt "no religious political parties are allowed, and I am not going to change the laws … I don't want headaches. I would like to build a country and not cause reasonable people to fight one another."
Sadat's "open-door" economic policies - which encouraged foreign and local private investment - continued, although Mubarak tried to shift the emphasis from imported luxuries to productive enterprises. Mubarak did not dare to discontinue the costly government subsidies which reduced the prices of basic foods to consumers.
Mubarak dismissed several cabinet ministers from the Sadat days for corruption, prosecuted Sadat's brother (who had amassed a fortune overnight), and sternly warned his own relatives to avoid such temptations. He razed the luxury weekend retreats on the pyramids' plateau at Giza. Like Nasser, but unlike Sadat, Mubarak followed local mores in separating his public from his private life. His wife Suzanne, who had a master's degree in sociology, did not try to play the highly visible "first lady" role which had attracted Westerners to Jihan Sadat but had offended many Egyptians.
Quotations:
"We shall continue to work for a Middle East that is free of strife and violence, living in harmony without the threat of terrorism or dangers of weapons of mass destruction."
"We will use all the power of the law to prevent support reaching illegal organizations, including terrorist groups."
Quotes from others about the person
"Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things and he's been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interests in the region: Middle East peace efforts, the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing the relationship with Israel… I would not refer to him as a dictator." - Joe Biden
"For years, whenever I saw Mubarak, he reminded me of a mummy. He spent a considerable time each day to “prepare” himself. That meant dying his hair and eyebrows jet black, and applying rouge to his cheeks to make them look rosy, in more or less the same way Egyptian mummy makers did with dead pharaohs. He also wore heels to look taller and used a corset to keep his belly in. Despite declining eyesight, he shunned glasses in public. Even in his 80s, he wanted to appear alive and young, just as pharaohs had done. Mubarak’s attempts at securing eternal youth were faintly comical and ultimately harmless. What was not comical and certainly harmless was the mummification of his regime." - Amir Taheri
"The sooner Mubarak leaves, the better it is for everybody and the quicker we can restore normality and stability in Egypt and establish the cornerstone of democracy in the Middle East." - Mohamed ElBaradei
Hosni Mubarak is married to Suzanne Mubarak and has two sons: Alaa, and Gamal. Both sons served four years in Egyptian jail for corruption and were released in 2015.