Mubarak lawyers claim release imminent after ruling in presidential palace case

A criminal court trying former President Hosni Mubarak in the presidential palace case ruled on Sunday to release him from custody.

Mubarak was accused of squandering LE125 million in state funds for the renovation of residential houses belonging to him and his sons.

In the first trial hearing of the case, the court ruled to release Mubarak while keeping his two sons in custody pending the resolution of the trial. The case has been sent back to the prosecutor with more defendants.

Despite this court ruling, Mubarak would still remain in custody on other charges, asserted Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and a civil defense lawyer in the killing of protesters case.

However, Mubarak has legally exceeded the maximum two-year detention period in the case of killing protesters in the 2011 revolution. That detention period expired in April, and hence the former president can no longer remain in custody on those charges, Nasrallah asserted.

A session in the retrial of Mubarak and six of his aides that was scheduled for Saturday was postponed for security reasons in the aftermath of deadly violence pursuant to the dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda Square sit-ins on August 14. The defendants are being retried on charges of responsibility for the death of protesters during the 18 days, and of profiteering. They had previously been found guilty of these charges, and Mubarak had received a life sentence.

Today, the only thing keeping Mubarak in custody is charges of receiving illegal gifts from the state-owned media institution Al-Ahram.

Al-Ahram quoted judicial sources in the prosecutor general’s office as saying that a detention order was issued against Mubarak in this case, and would be put into effect following the release order in the presidential palace case.

However, Farid al-Deeb, the head of Mubarak's legal team, told Mada Masr that there were no pending detention orders against Mubarak in any criminal cases, and that he would be released as soon as the necessary procedures were finished.