Mubarak sentenced to 3 years in jail for embezzlement

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced former President Mubarak to three years in jail for embezzling over LE100 million from state funds for work done on private homes owned by him and his family. The court also sentenced the president’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, to four years in prison on the same charges.

The court ordered a LE125 million fine for the three defendants, and ordered them to return another LE21 million to the state. The Mubaraks had already returned LE104 million of the embezzled money to the state as a show of good faith throughout the case.

A recent investigation by Mada Masr’s Hossam Bahgat reveals that Mubarak, the former first lady, his two sons and their wives routinely renovated their private estates or bought furniture and fraudulently listed their expenses as maintenance for communication towers, which are set up around the country to provide secure phone lines for the president and paid for by the state.

Mubarak's defense told state-owned Al-Ahram that it would challenge the verdict in the Court of Cassation.

The court decided that the case against two presidential engineers and two officials in the Arab Contractors Company, who are accused of facilitating the fraud in the same case, was inadmissible.

Mubarak is currently undergoing a retrial in another case, in which he faces charges of killing protesters in 2011. He had initially been handed a life sentence.

In August, the court decided to release Mubarak, who was under investigation in another case, in which he’s accused of unlawfully receiving gifts from Al-Ahram, after he paid LE18 million back to the state.