[JURIST] An Egyptian court on Thursday acquitted former Egyptian prime minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq and Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, the sons of deposed president Hosni Mubarak [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], of charges of embezzling public funds. In 2012 Shafiq was accused of misusing public funds [JURIST report] while in office as minister of civic aviation. While he was serving as head of the Pilots’ Association for Land Development, Shafiq was accused of illegally allocating over 40,000 meters of land to the association, and then reselling that land to Mubarak’s sons for substantially less than their market value. Although acquitted of charges related to the association, Alaa and Gamal still face several other trials for charges of corruption [Al Jazeera report]. Additionally, Shafiq is currently awaiting a verdict in a separate corruption trial [UPI report].

Mubarak and other members of his administration have been the subject of controversial judicial proceedings since the Egyptian Revolution [JURIST backgrounder]. In August Mubarak appeared in court for his retrial on complicity charges [JURIST report] in the killing of over 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 Egypt’s Court of Cassation ordered the reinstatement [JURIST report] of Mubarak-era prosecutor-general Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, holding that then-president Mohammed Morsi’s dismissal of Mahmoud was unconstitutional. In January former culture minister Farouq Hosni was acquitted of charges [JURIST report] of corruption and illegal enrichment.