AFP - Getty Images
An image taken from Egyptian state TV shows ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak sitting inside a cage in a courtroom during his verdict hearing in Cairo Saturday.
By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services
Updated at 8 a.m. ET: CAIRO - Egypt's ousted ruler Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison Saturday for complicity in the killings of protesters who eventually overthrew him. He could have received the death penalty.
Presiding judge Ahmed Refaat also sentenced his former interior minister, Habib el-Adli, to life in prison on the same charge. But?Mubarak's two sons -- Gamal and Alaa -- were acquitted on corruption charges.? ?
Scuffles broke out in the Cairo courtroom between supporters and opponents of the former president after the verdicts were announced.
NBC News, citing state TV, said Mubarak was taken to Tora prison after the court hearing.?Egypt TV quoted unidentified medical sources as saying Mubarak had suffered a health crisis as he arrived at the prison and was being treated in the helicopter that transported him.
Before the sentence was passed, protesters had chanted "Enough talk, we want execution," outside the court, set up in a police academy on the outskirts of Cairo, Reuters reported. Hundreds of police with riot shields and batons surrounded the facility where the 10-month trial has been held.?
Asmaa Waguih / Reuters
Pictures of people who died during last year's revolution are seen in front of security forces next to the courthouse in Cairo where former president Hosni Mubarak will heard the verdict in his trial Saturday.
The Ahram Online newspaper reported Saturday?that?pro-Mubarak supporters were also outside the police academy, holding banners that read "Hosni Mubarak is a legend" and "The most honourable Egyptian is Mubarak."
The paper reported at 9:38 a.m. local time (3:38 a.m. ET) that Mubarak, wearing sunglasses, a beige top and black trousers, was wheeled in to the police academy for the hearing as he lay on a stretcher.
The judge?said uprising ended 30 years of tyranny, saying the people who protested against poverty and oppression were peaceful, according to the newspaper.
Mubarak, 84, was acquitted of the graft charges he faced, Ahram Online reported. It said his life sentence was for failing to prevent the killing of protesters.
The Muslim Brotherhood called for a retrial in a statement issued Saturday by the campaign of its presidential candidate.?
"The public prosecutor did not carry out its full duty in gathering adequate evidence to convict the accused for killing protesters," said Yasser Ali, official spokesman for the Mohamed Mursi campaign.?
Others also expressed discontent.
"Initial, fleeting satisfaction, followed by disappointment, and then anger," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center and a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, in a message on Twitter.?
"I'd think this verdict would spur greater consensus between Islamists ... and liberals," he added.
Nader Bakkar, the spokesman of Al-Nour Salafist Party, said in a tweet translated by Ahram Online that Egyptians were "filled with anger and disappointment."
But some reacted with joy at the news.
Soha Saeed, the wife of one of about 850 people killed in the street revolt that toppled Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011, shouted: "I'm so happy. I'm so happy."?
?
Voters lined up in Cairo to choose from five leading candidates: a socialist, two Islamists, and two with ties to former President Hosni Mubarak. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Can voters force candidates to compromise in Egypt run-off?
Few Egyptians expected Mubarak would go to the gallows, even if some thought that was what he deserved. Protesters have often hung his effigy from lamp posts since he fell on February 11, 2011.?
NBC's Richard Engel spoke with former President Jimmy Carter to talk about Egypt's elections and the country's future. The Carter Center has been in Egypt monitoring the presidential elections.
Historic trial
It was the first time an Arab leader ousted by his people has been placed before a regular court. The trial had Arabs glued to the television last year and sent a message to other autocrats battling rebellions what fate might await them.?
"Mubarak's trial has the potential to set a meaningful regional precedent for accountability for human rights abuses and for upholding international fair trial standards," Human Rights Watch wrote in a report before the session.?
?Runoff could take Egypt's voters on one of two very different paths
But the ruling could not come at a more sensitive time for Egypt, right in the middle of a fraught presidential election that pits a figure from the Muslim Brotherhood, banned under Mubarak, against the deposed leader's last prime minister.?
NBC News' Charlene Gubash, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.?
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