[JURIST] An Egyptian court on Thursday ordered the release on bail of ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s two sons, pending a retrial in a corruption case. Alaa and Gamal Mubarak were charged for using state funds to renovate family residences and sentenced to four years in prison. Their father was sentenced [JURIST report] to three years in prison for the embezzling scheme. However, earlier this month, an appeals court ordered a retrial [JURIST report]. Because Alaa and Gamal Mubarak have served the maximum pretrial detention period, they were free to leave prison after the court order Thursday.

Mubarak and other members of his administration have been the subject of controversial judicial proceedings since the Egyptian Revolution [JURIST backgrounder]. In September an Egyptian court postponed the verdict in the retrial of former president Hosni Mubarak [Al Jazeera profile, JURIST news archive] due to the large amount of evidence. In December 2013 an Egyptian court acquitted [JURIST report] former Egyptian prime minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq and Alaa and Gamal Mubarak of charges of embezzling public funds. In August 2013 Mubarak appeared in court for his retrial on complicity charges [JURIST report] in the killing of more than 100 protesters during Egypt’s 2011 uprising. The same week, Mubarak was released from prison [JURIST report] and placed under house arrest at a military hospital after a court concluded that he served the maximum in time allowed in connection with the long-pending corruption case. In July 2013 lawyers for Mubarak entered [JURIST report] a not guilty plea in his retrial for alleged complicity in the 2011 killings of protesters.