Egyptian court orders release of two Mubarak sons from prison

The two sons of Egypt's ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak will be released from jail after a court today ruled that they have completed their three-year sentences for corruption in a case dubbed the "presidential palaces" affair.
Gamal, Mubarak's one-time heir apparent, and his brother Alaa, a wealthy businessman, had appealed to the court arguing that their sentences had expired due to the time they had already spent in detention, while awaiting the trial.
The court ordered their release after taking into account the time they served since their arrest in 2011.
Mubarak and his sons were charged of acquiring almost 126 million Egyptian pound from the Presidential Palace budget and using them for construction and development of family-owned assets.

The duo were also convicted of forging official documents and damaging public property.
Collectively, they were fined 125 million pound and were required to repay 21 million pound.

In May last year, Mubarak and his sons were sentenced to three years in a maximum security prison for the embezzlement.
The two were first detained in April 2011 - two months after their father was ousted during the popular uprising against him.
Gamal and Alaa were released in January after their convictions in the presidential palaces theft case were temporarily overturned. But were again taken into custody after a court found them guilty during a May re-trial.

Last November, Mubarak and seven former security commanders, including his former interior minister Habib al-Adly, were cleared of the charges of killing anti-government protesters during the 2011 revolution.
The judge in the case said Mubarak should never be tried for these charges.
Mubarak, 87, is held in a military hospital in the southern Cairo suburb of Maadi, and it is not clear when he will be released.