For Mubarak, once Egypt's strongman, a long fall from grace

Mubarak, left, with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1982

Cairo (CNN) -- A 30-year ironclad rule undone by an 18-day revolution saw its epilogue Saturday -- with former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered to spend the rest of his days behind bars.

At one time, Mubarak, 84, dominated Egypt's political landscape by intimidating opponents and infiltrating political movements.

Saturday, after a 10-month trial he attended on a stretcher locked inside a courtroom cage, a judge ordered his transfer to a Cairo maximum security prison, according to state TV.

Angry protests erupted inside and outside the court as the former president's allies and foes voiced their reaction to the landmark verdicts. Some slammed the judge for finding him guilty, while others called for his execution.

While Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killing of pro-reform demonstrators -- a charge for which he could have faced the death penalty -- he was cleared of corruption, and his sons acquitted of the charges they faced.

Photos: Egyptians react to Mubarak verdict

Mubarak sentenced to life

2011: Inside Mubarak's trial

Judge Ahmed Refaat was in no doubt about the significance of the moment, as he spoke of the "dark" days of Mubarak's three-decade rule.

"We made a promise to have a fair trial based on the law of the land and we wanted this historical trial to be just and fair in order to give the rights to its true owners, no matter what the sentence will be," he said.

When the pro-democracy protests started in January last year, few would have dreamed this would be the punishment handed down to the man who ruled over them for so long.

Timeline of Mubarak's ascent and fall from power

Mubarak came to power in 1981, after then-President Anwar Sadat died in a hail of gunfire at a military parade -- killed by Islamic militants from within the army's own ranks after he took the dramatic step of making peace with Israel.

He was a Soviet-trained pilot who was chief of staff of Egypt's air force during the 1973 Mideast war. The early success of Egyptian pilots against Israel made him a national hero, and Sadat made him vice president in 1975.

Upon assuming office following Sadat's assassination, one of Mubarak's first acts was to declare a state of emergency that barred unauthorized assembly, restricted freedom of speech and allowed police to jail people indefinitely. It finally expired this week.

Mubarak made extensive use of those emergency powers in his time at the helm. The Egyptian army put down riots by disgruntled police officers in 1986, and Mubarak threw an estimated 30,000 people in jail when jihadists carried out a string of attacks on tourists.

He won four terms as president in elections that were widely considered formalities. His fifth election, in 2005, was Egypt's first multi-party presidential vote, but many considered that, too, to be a sham.

The country's economy stagnated for the first 20 years of his rule. Development picked up in the past decade, fueled by a move away from state control and by billions in tourist dollars, but analysts say its gains have been unevenly distributed. About 40 percent of Egyptians currently live in poverty.

Under Mubarak, Egypt was a major player in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and it contributed troops to the U.S.-led coalition that drove Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991.