(AFP Photo)
Mostafa Hamza, who was charged for involvement in the 1995 assassination attempt on former president Hosni Mubarak, was acquitted on Monday. Giza Criminal Court found Hamza not guilty of planning to assassinate the president during the ousted head of state’s 1995 visit to Addis Ababa.
The Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya senior member had previously been found guilty of joining a banned group seeking to overthrow the government, creating chaos in the country, and plotting to assassinate Mubarak. However he successfully appealed the ruling and was granted a retrial following the revolution.
The assassination attempt took place in June 1995 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia when Mubarak was participating in a conference of the Organisation of African Unity. Gunmen ambushed the then 67 year old president’s motorcade. The bulletproof limousine transporting Mubarak was hit with bullets but the president was unhurt. Two police officers were killed at the scene of the crime, and a third was injured.
Hamza was exonerated by Beni Suef Criminal Court last September after being previously sentenced to death by a military tribunal as part of the Albania Returnees Case, a 1999 criminal trial that sought to crack down on Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya’s previous terrorist activities.
