Release of Mubarak sons ordered as inquiry continues in profiteering case

The Cairo Criminal Court ordered Alaa and Gamal Mubarak's release from detention on LE1 million bail, reported the state-owned Middle East News Agency.

The court issued the ruling late on Thursday after the two men appealed the Illicit Gains Authority’s decision to keep them in detention as investigations continue in the case. The sons of former President Hosni Mubarak face charges of profiteering during their father’s administration.

On May 21, the same court sentenced Hosni 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, in a separate trial known as the presidential palaces case. The court also sentenced Alaa and Gamal to four years in prison on the same charges.

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

Late last year, Alaa and Gamal were acquitted along with their co-defendant, former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, in a case known as “the land of the pilots.”

They also face charges of insider trading in yet another trial.

Mubarak and his sons are also currently being retried in the so-called “trial of the century,” in which they face charges of responsibility for the killing of protesters during the January 2011 uprising.

Former Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly and his six aides are also standing retrial on the same charges, though Adly was acquitted in another case earlier this month.  On June 12, Adly was found innocent of graft and money laundering charges, which alleged that he made LE5 million off of corrupt deals during his time in office.