Mubarak fraud conviction overturned News
Mubarak fraud conviction overturned

[JURIST] A court in Egypt on Tuesday overturned the convictions of embezzlement for former president Hosni Mubarak [Al Jazeera profile; JURIST news archive] and ordered a retrial. Mubarak was sentenced in May to three years after being found guilty of embezzling USD $14 million of government money for personal expenses. However, the Court of Cassation [official website, in Arabic] found legal procedures were not properly followed during Mubarak’s original trial. Mubarak is expected to be released [BBC report] on Jan 17. The 86-year-old has been in detention since April 2011.

Mubarak and other members of his administration have been the subject of controversial judicial proceedings since the Egyptian Revolution [JURIST backgrounder]. In May an Egyptian criminal court in Cairo convicted [JURIST report] Mubarak of embezzling millions of dollars of public money and sentenced the former president to three years in prison. The court also sentenced Mubarak’s sons Alaa and Gamal to four years in prison for their role in the embezzling scheme. 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.

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