Journalist claims he received phone call from Mubarak

Mubarak-era journalist Magdy al-Daqaq told Al-Arabiya that he received a phone call from former President Hosni Mubarak last Sunday, during which he reportedly repeated some of his last words in office: “ History will have the final word.”

Al-Arabiya said on Wednesday that Daqaq had received a phone call from an unknown number and a Brigadier-General told him that Mubarak wanted to talk to him.

Daqaq described Mubarak’s voice as “quiet and content,” as he told him, during the brief phone call, that he had done his duty towards the people and trusts their perception. According to Daqaq, the former President repeated what he said in one of his final speeches before resigning from power in 2011: “History will have the final word.”

Daqaq was editor-in-chief of several state-owned magazines under Mubarak. He was close to the ruling circles and Mubarak himself, and continuously defended Mubarak’s position and the performance of state media.

In an article last December, after resigning from his position as editor-in-chief of the privately owned Al-Ayam newspaper, Daqaq referred to the January 25 Revolution as “the January conspiracy.”

On Wednesday, Cairo Criminal Court adjourned the retrial of Mubarak, along with seven others, for the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising.

Mubarak is also facing trial for financial corruption in two separate cases, one pertaining to the misallocation of funds for presidential palaces and another relating to the receipt of expensive gifts from the state-owned Al-Ahram institution.

Mubarak is currently located in the Maadi military hospital after his period of detention under investigation expired.

Many commentators expect Mubarak to have a sense of vindication following the deterioration of the country over the past three years, as he warned would happen before his fall.