Protests Erupt across Egypt after Mubarak Verdicts

Thousands of angry demonstrators took to the streets across Egypt on Saturday after ex-president Hosni Mubarak and his security chief were jailed and six police chiefs acquitted over last year's deaths of protesters.

Judge Ahmed Refaat sentenced the 84-year-old former leader and his interior minister Habib al-Adly to life for their role in the deaths of protesters during the revolt that ousted them, but acquitted the six security commanders on the same charges.

Around 850 people were killed during the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak in February 2011.

Thousands of people on Saturday thronged Cairo's Tahrir Square, epicenter of anti-Mubarak protests, waving flags and chanting against the judiciary and the military council that took power when Mubarak was forced out.

"Down with military rule," the protesters chanted.

"Either we get justice for our martyrs or we die like them," a section of the crowd shouted.

Many were furious that Mubarak had not been sentenced to death, as requested by the prosecution. Others were in shock at the acquittal of the police chiefs.

The heavy-handed tactics used by Mubarak's police and the culture of impunity at the interior ministry were among the driving forces behind last year's uprising.

Mubarak's lawyer Yasser Bahr told Agence France Presse the former strongman planned to appeal the sentence.

"Life sentence for the people and acquittal for Mubarak," read one sign in Tahrir Square, of Mubarak's decision to appeal.

"If you think the old regime fell, you are wrong. The original version is currently being downloaded," read another.

In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, thousands gathered in the city center, chanting against the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, an AFP photographer said.

Around 1,500 protesters also gathered in the canal city of Ismailiya, an AFP reporter said.

In Suez, some 2,000 protesters called for the "cleansing of the judiciary," witnesses told AFP.

Saturday's verdict comes just two weeks before a presidential election run-off that will pit Mubarak's former premier Ahmed Shafiq against the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Moursi in a highly polarized race.

It is the first openly contested presidential election in any of the Arab countries swept by protests and uprisings challenging decades of autocratic rule.