The Fate of Dictators in the Arab Spring

What is the current fate of the rulers of countries whose power was challenged during the political movements known as the Arab Spring? AFP has reviewed the current situation of these political figures in the Arab world. Egypt: Hosni Mubarak has been released from prison. After three decades of complete dominance over power, Hosni Mubarak resigned on February 11, 2011, following 18 days of protests and political unrest in Egypt, handing over power to the armed forces. In April of that year, Hosni Mubarak was arrested, and in the general elections held in June 2012, Mohamed Morsi, a leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement, won the first free presidential election in Egypt. Morsi's government was ousted after about a year of turbulent rule filled with crises and political opposition by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the commander of the Egyptian armed forces, who is now the country's president. Hosni Mubarak, who was tried for his involvement in the killing of approximately 850 participants in the political protests, was acquitted on March 2, 2017, by the highest appellate authority in the Egyptian judicial system. Now 88 years old, he was discharged from a military hospital on Friday. Tunisia: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled. A month of widespread protests against poverty and unemployment in Tunisia, the first of the series of movements known as the Arab Spring, forced President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country with his family after 23 years in power. He is in exile in Saudi Arabia and lives quietly at the age of 80, away from public gatherings, usually communicating with the outside world through his Lebanese lawyer. The Tunisian judiciary has convicted him in absentia of a series of crimes, including financial corruption and incitement to violence against participants in the political protests. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the second crime. Syria: Bashar al-Assad remains in power. Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, remains in power. Military assistance from Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, especially since 2015, has shifted the balance of power in the Syrian civil war in favor of the Syrian government forces. The Syrian civil war began in March 2011 after the brutal suppression of protests against the Assad family's regime. So far, over 320,000 people have lost their lives in this war, and millions have been displaced and forced to migrate. Rebel groups supported by Turkey, Gulf Arab states, and Western governments continue to battle the Syrian government forces but have been overshadowed by jihadist groups like the Islamic State and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda. Libya: Gaddafi was horrifically killed. The powerful ruler of Libya was captured and killed by rebels on October 20, 2011, while NATO-backed insurgents tightened the siege of Tripoli and he attempted to flee to his hometown of Sirte after 42 years of uncontested rule over the country. This incident marked the climax of protests that had begun in February of that year in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city. Since then, Libya has been engulfed in unrest and chaos, with two rival parliaments and governments competing for control over the country, even engaging in armed conflict. Meanwhile, numerous rival militia groups are fighting each other for a larger share of oil, gas, and other revenue sources. Yemen: Ali Abdullah Saleh has allied with the rebels. After a year of political protests and armed clashes, Ali Abdullah Saleh resigned from the presidency in February 2012 after 33 years in power. Following this, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, the vice president, took over the country's affairs and was later elected as president. However, some of the most equipped and effective units of the armed forces remained loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, and when the Houthi Shiites seized the capital Sana'a in September 2014, Saleh's loyal forces did not react against them. Since then, Ali Abdullah Saleh has formed a close alliance with the Houthi rebels, and despite two years of military intervention by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, the Houthis still control the city of Sana'a, much of the northern regions of the country, and coastal areas along the Red Sea. Bahrain: The royal family intensifies repression. The ruling Sunni royal family in Bahrain faced a month-long protest from the Shia majority in the country in 2011, demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. The Bahraini government, with the help of Saudi and Emirati forces, violently suppressed the protesters using weapons. Despite repeated calls from Western governments for the Bahraini government to reach an agreement with the opposition and implement political reforms, King Hamad bin Isa has dissolved the most important political formation of the country's Shia and sentenced many of its leaders to long prison terms since those events. Additionally, he has banned the activities of other political groups. Algeria: Bouteflika in a wheelchair. Abdelaziz Bouteflika managed to quell the protests in 2011. He announced a series of reforms while consolidating his control over the government, exploiting the Algerian people's fear of a return to the bloody civil war of the 1990s. Mr. Bouteflika, who was elected president of Algeria for the fourth time in 2014, is now 80 years old and rarely seen in public. After a stroke in 2013, he appears in public in a wheelchair and finds it very difficult to speak. Morocco: The king has relinquished some of his powers. King Mohammed VI of Morocco was one of the first leaders to respond to the protests known as the Arab Spring. In response to the February 20, 2011 protests against financial and political corruption, he announced a series of constitutional changes in March of that year. After a referendum, he managed to maintain his political and religious supremacy over the country while also delegating more powers to the prime minister and parliament.