Egypt court drops murder charge against Mubarak

An Egyptian court dismissed Saturday a murder charge against ousted president Hosni Mubarak over the deaths of protesters during a 2011 uprising that ended the former strongman's decades-long rule.

The court also acquitted Mubarak of a corruption charge, but he will remain in prison because he is serving a three-year sentence in a separate corruption case.

Seven of his security commanders, including the feared former interior minister Habib al-Adly, were acquitted over the demonstrator deaths.

Cheers broke out in the courtroom and Mubarak's two sons and co-defendants stooped down to kiss his forehead when the judge read out the verdict, as Mubarak lay in an upright stretcher inside the caged dock.

The ruling came after a dramatic retrial in which the former president defended his 30-year rule.

An appeals court overturned an initial life sentence for Mubarak in 2012 on a technicality.

His lawyer Farid al-Deeb told AFP that Saturday's verdict was "a good ruling that proved the integrity of Mubarak's era."