Mubarak to Court: 'My Conscience Is at Rest'

With his retrial drawing to a close, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was wheeled into a courtroom in a hospital bed yesterday to testify about the 2011 killings of protesters, reports Reuters. Not only did the 86-year-old, who wore blue prison garb, say history would vindicate him, he said his conscience is totally clear: "I swear to God that every decision or policy I pursued was meant for the good of the nation and the people of my nation, those who supported me and those who didn’t," he told the Cairo court. "If the end of my time nears, my conscience is at rest."

It was Mubarak's first public statement since he was ousted during the Arab Spring, reports the New York Times. With Egypt experiencing such unrest since his ouster, some are reportedly longing for the relative stability of his 30-year reign. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for sanctioning the killing of demonstrators, but an appeals court ordered a retrial. The court said it will deliver its verdict later this month, according to the Times. For now, Mubarak is living in police custody at a military hospital while serving a separate three-year sentence for embezzlement. (In April, Egypt doled out what could be the largest death sentence in recent history.)