Mubarak's fate up to Egyptian people, says Clinton

US secretary of state doesn’t comment directly on life sentence, but praises progress in Egypt’s transition to democracy

TROMSO, Norway (AP) — US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton isn’t commenting directly on the life-in-prison sentence handed down to ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, but says his fate is “up to the Egyptian people, their judicial system and their government.”

The 84-year-old Mubarak, an American ally who ruled for decades, was sentenced Saturday for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising that forced him from power in 2011.

Clinton is praising Egypt for what she says was the recent free and fair election for president that is a further sign of Egypt’s progress in its democratic transition.

The initial presidential vote has set up a mid-June contest between Mubarak’s last prime minister and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist Islamist group that Mubarak long persecuted.