Egyptian court clears Mubarak in 2011 protest deaths

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• WILLIAM BRANGHAM, PBS ANCHOR:

  For more on today's ruling, we turn to Samer Shehata. He is an associate professor of Middle Eastern politics at the University of Oklahoma. He joins us now from Norman, Oklahoma.

  Professor, how important is this ruling for Egypt?

• SAMER SHEHATA, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA:

  It has very little political significance for Egypt's future political development. It's unlikely that this is going to affect the course of events in terms of government policy or even in terms of opposition protest. Mubarak is, in many ways, yesterday's news. It's important in other ways, but not for Egypt's political future.

• BRANGHAM:

  And are there larger implications, if not in Egypt, then for the rest of the Middle East?

• SHEHATA:

  Well, I think Mubarak's acquittal today is, of course, symbolically very important. I mean, Mubarak was Egypt's president, really an authoritarian president for twenty-nine and a half years. It's also the case, I think, that over 860 people, 6,000 people were injured during the 18 days of the uprising.

  And so, to not try Mr. Mubarak in a fair way and hold him accountable, at least complicit for some of those deaths — not to mention those in the ministry of the interior — is really a travesty of justice. So, symbolically, of course, it's an absurd outcome.

  And I think it is quite telling in terms of where Egypt is right now in comparison to the goals of the 2011 revolution or uprising. Mr. Mubarak is found not guilty. He's likely to become a free person in a few months, whereas there are thousands of political prisoners in Egypt today, including many of the revolutionaries, the youth who initiated the January 25 uprising.

• BRANGHAM:

  So, for the average Egyptian who may have seen Mubarak's overthrow as hugely important for the "Arab Spring", what does it mean, that he might soon be a free man?

• SHEHATA:

  Well, I think it tells us largely about the fate of the "Arab Spring", quote-unquote, nearly four years after it began in a small town in the interior of Tunisia in December of 2010. Many of the hopes and aspirations that many of us had for the Arab world, a renaissance, political democracy, human rights, rule of law, a new era of participation, and so on, that largely that has not been fulfilled with the partial exception, quite a hopeful exception, of Tunisia.

  But if we look at Egypt, if we look at Libya, if we look at Syria, certainly, if we look at Bahrain, very little progress has been made. And authoritarian regimes — in some cases very bloody and brutal authoritarian regimes — were really the absence of the rule of law, and chaos are the order of the day.

• BRANGHAM:

  OK. Professor Samer Shehata, thank you very much for joining us.

• SHEHATA:

  You're welcome.