A JUDGE dismissed murder charges Saturday against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and acquitted his security chief over the killing of protesters during Egypt’s 2011 uprising, crushing any hope of a judicial reckoning on behalf of the hundreds of victims of the revolt that toppled him.

    Mubarak, who assumed Egypt’s highest office in 1981 following the assassination of Anwar Sadat, has spent virtually all the time since he was detained in April 2011 in hospitals due to poor health.

    In his ruling, judge Mahmoud al-Rashidi cited the “inadmissibility” of the case against Mubarak due to a technicality. He said Mubarak’s May 2011 referral to trial by prosecutors ignored the “implicit” decision that no criminal charges be filed against him when his security chief and six of his top aides were referred to trial by the same prosecutors two months earlier.(SD-Agencies)