[JURIST] Egyptian authorities announced Monday that former president Hosni Mubarak’s two sons were released from prison. Alaa and Gamal Mubarak were charged with using state funds to renovate family residences and sentenced to four years in prison. While both brothers have been released [AP report], they still face a retrial [JURIST report] on charges of corruption with their father and are also charged in a separate case with insider trading. The release of the two brothers was expected after an Egyptian court ordered [JURIST report] their release on bail last Thursday. The brothers’ hearings on current charges are expected to resume in March.
Mubarak and other members of his administration have been the subject of controversial judicial proceedings since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution [JURIST backgrounder]. An Egyptian court overturned [JURIST report] Hosni Mubarak’s fraud conviction earlier this month. 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 Hosni 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.