Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was the first former leader to be tried in-person since the start of the Arab Spring in early 2011.
LISTEN: Erdem Koc reports.
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When the verdict came, it was damning.
"Firstly, Mohammed Hosni al-Sayyid Mubarak is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killing of protesters."
Soon after that critical moment in Egypt's democratic transition, an election was held.
The Muslim Brotherhood candidate secured 52 percent of the vote to defeat former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
"Doctor Mohamed Morsi, 13 million, two hundred and thirty thousand…"
With that declaration came wild scenes in Cairo's Tahrir Square where tens of thousands of people had gathered to hear the result.
Egypt's new President Mohammed Morsi promised to serve all Egyptians after his narrow win in the country's first free presidential election.
In his victory speech, Mohammed Morsi declared his win marked the start of a new era for Egypt.
"Time has come for the people to recover its will and its freedom and find an honourable living without suffering and in which it will find a justice that will not distinguish between young and old, or between a president and those who elect him. We are all equal before the law."
Up until the 2011 revolution which ended the authoritarian rule of Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood had been banned under Egyptian law.
Adel Abdel Ghafar from the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra said on the surface, Egypt getting its first ever freely-elected civilian president was a good result.
But he forecast that Mohamed Morsi's path would be fraught.
"He will attempt to be a unifying force, however as you see from the election result that it was very close, 51 per cent for Morsy and 49 per cent for Shafiq, so the country is pretty divided on a Muslim Brotherhood leadership and this is an undeniable fact. His main challenge will be to actually find a workable solution with the Egyptian military which remains the most powerful political force in Egypt today."
There was some muscle flexing by the military when it issued a series of decrees, before the transition to civilian rule but in the end the President asserted his authority.
President Morsi also had to tread carefully when an eight day conflict between Israel and Hamas flared up in the Gaza strip.
A delicate balancing act was needed because Hamas, which rules Gaza is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and solidarity was expected.
But President Morsi also had to be mindful of the long-standing peace treaty Egypt has had with Israel and which he promised would not be scrapped if he was elected.
However, his real problems turned out to be domestic.
They stemmed from popular resistance to a presidential decree exempting him from judicial oversight.
Mr Morsi's decree put his decisions above legal challenge until a new parliament is elected, prompting opponents to accuse him of hijacking the revolution that brought down Hosni Mubarak.
The president's aides say the decree will speed up a protracted transition that has been hindered by legal obstacles, but his rivals condemned him as an autocratic pharaoh who wanted to impose his Islamist vision on the country.
The protests in December escalated showing the spirit of the Arab Spring or Awakening was still very much alive.
The protesters demanded Mohammed Morsi rescind the decree giving him near-absolute power and also withdraw a disputed draft constitution.
"The protest will be extended until he steps down, because he is not the right person to legislate. The people elected him to make reforms for the country, not to draft a constitution that works perfectly for himself. We want him to make reforms for the country."
Street battles also flared up between Mr Morsi's supporters and opponents.
Compounding the president's woes several of his advisers resigned.
Mr Morsi eventually addressed the nation blaming supporters of the ousted Mubarak regime for fomenting the violence.
He said he will not accept killings or sabotage but will respect free speech.
"I cannot tolerate, that any person perpetrate any killing, or vandalism. I cannot tolerate any wilful act of vandalism, or killing with pre-meditation and full purpose."
Mr Morsi offered little in the way of concessions to his opponents but said a section of the decree that gave him sweeping powers could be modified.
He also insisted the powers were temporary.
But controversy persisted over the proposed constitution.
Critics say the draft, drawn up by a body dominated by Morsi-supporting Islamists, was rushed through parliament without proper consultation and did not do enough to protect political and religious freedoms and the rights of women.
Critics also feared the new charter could pave the way for a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
But Pro-Morsi supporters say the extensive powers held by the Supreme Constitutional Court are a relic of the past, and diminishing their powers and changing the constitution is a natural step forward for Egypt.
Former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, who is also a prominent Opposition leader in Egypt says President Morsi must bear full responsibility for the unrest affecting the country, describing his government as oppressive and autocratic.
"Well the core demand for now is to rescind the constitutional declaration. But if people were to ask me or to ask us, what do you want, I mean, we clearly want a new constituent assembly, we want to be able to get a proper democratic constitution that guarantees our rights, our freedoms, a proper balance of power, and we want a qualified government, a government of national salvation to be able to get the country out of the mess we are in, particularly focusing on the economy and security."
Just before the December vote on the new constitution and after weeks of protests, Mr Morsi announced he'd annulled the decree that extended his powers.
Despite opposition allegations of polling fraud, Egypt's electoral commission confirmed the controversial constitution was passed by 64 per cent of voters.
The scene is set for continued instability in Egypt.
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