Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made a rare appearance in a video posted on the YouTube channel “Mubarak’s Archive” on the night of October 15. Mubarak talked about his memories of the 6th of October 1973 Arab-Israeli war on its 46th anniversary and praised the role played by the Egyptian armed forces in the war.
“The Egyptian Air Forces fully carried out their duties in striking the enemy’s operations center in the October 1973 War,” he mentioned during the video.
The video has earned 395,583 views and the account gained 14,000 subscribers since the video’s release. In a 26-minute-video, Mubarak narrates stories about events he witnessed as the commander of the Air Force and deputy minister of defense during historically intense combat that lasted nearly three weeks.
Mubarak launched the video as a tribute to the late Egyptian president Mohamed Anwar Sadat, who made the decision to start the war against Israel. Mubarak commented, “He was a very brave and courageous man.”
Discussing the launch of the war, Mubarak asserted that the Egyptian warplanes carried out their mission efficaciously and with exceptional confidence. He then recalled informing Sadat about the success of the first airstrike against the Israeli side, when he had enthusiastically shouted, “We’ve won the war, guys!”
He further saluted the assassinated president Sadat, noting that the war’s victory is celebrated on the same date as Sadat’s murder by a group of extremists.
Mubarak revealed additional details about the 50-minute battle that took place during the 1973 war over Egypt’s Delta province of Mansoura in which 18 Israeli planes were shattered, describing it as one of the longest air confrontations of the war. The air-to-air conflict included a total of 200 aircrafts from the two sides.
The ousted president then referred to the June 1967 Six-Day War, arguing that it should not be considered a war. He pointed out that the Egyptian army was hit without prior notice, recalling that he received notice that the country was in a state of emergency following his return from an operation center.
“A commissioner from the General Command declared on June 3 that there was a political demonstration. Thus, we had to send troops to Sinai,” Mubarak said.
The son of 92-year-old expelled President, Alaa Mubarak, promoted the recently released video on his Twitter account, saying, “President Mubarak discusses some October War memories … tonight at 8.30 p.m.”
Mubarak has made few public appearances since his ouster, among which was his media interview with Kuwait’s al-Watan newspaper in which he talked about his Gulf War memories in May 2019. He made another public appearance in December 2018 in court, where he was called to testify for the “mass jailbreak” case in which the late ousted president Mohamed Morsi was involved.
Mubarak’s regime was expelled during the January 25th revolution in 2011. He was dismissed after a public demonstration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where thousands of Egyptians organized a sit-in calling for the regime’s removal.
Mubarak, along with his two sons Alaa and Gamal, was sentenced in May 2015 over the embezzlement of millions of dollars from the state over several decades of the ruling. The sentence further included a fine of about 126 million Egyptian pounds (7 million US dollars) and a return of about 21.2 million pounds.
In March 2017, charges against Mubarak, who was accused of killing nearly 900 protestors during the January 25th revolution, were all dropped by the Egyptian court, and he was freed. Mubarak accordingly left the Cairo military hospital where he had been receiving treatment during his six years of imprisonment.
Furthermore, Mubarak’s two sons were accused of illegally gaining LE493 million by enabling a Cypriot company to steal shares from a national bank and unlawfully selling natural gas to Israel alongside their father. The Egyptian court released them in September 2018.
Based on a court ruling, Mubarak is dispossessed from having a military funeral and any honoring medals.
