Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak could leave prison as early as Wednesday night, government officials and legal experts said, after a Cairo court ordered the release of the deposed autocrat.
By doing so, there would be no legal ground for former ruler’s detention, though he is being retried on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters in 2011.
Mubarak’s release was order by an Egyptian court on Wednesday, after the 85-year-old agreed to return or pay the value of gifts he received from state news organizations while in office, a spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said.
“The prosecution has no legal ground to appeal the decision of his release, as Mubarak paid the money he took, and has no legal ground for his detention,” said Yassir Mohammad Sayyid Ahmad, an attorney representing families of Egyptians killed by Mubarak’s security forces during the 18-day uprising in 2011, in which more than 800 people died.
Egypt’s prosecutor said Mubarak would remain on the country’s no-fly list and that his assets would remain frozen.
Anyway, Mubarak has no political future, but the release raises the question whether the country is heading to a new military government.
No more than two month ago, freely elected president Mohamed Morsi was deposed by Egypt’s military, once commanded by Hosni Mubarak. And there are no doubts the country has entered into one of the bloodiest internal conflicts in its modern history.
As The Guardian reports, Egypt's army-backed authorities on Tuesday arrested Mohamed Badie, the Brotherhood's leader and his arrest was part of a wave of detentions among the upper echelons of the organisation. Egyptian state media reported on Wednesday that Murad Ali, a media adviser to the Brotherhood's political party, and Safwat Hegazy, an incendiary preacher, were both arrested while trying to flee the country.
The turmoil has alarmed the US and European Union, but Israel and some Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia have pressed the west not to punish Cairo's new rulers.A Cairo criminal court accepted on Wednesday an appeal by former president Hosni Mubarak against a recent detention order he received, setting him free. However, the court said Mubarak will be held for 48 hours to give the prosecution a chance to consider whether it will appeal the decision to release him or not.
A judicial source told Ahram Online that the proscution will probably not appeal the release order.
A team of judges from the Northern Cairo misdemeanour court arrived earlier on Wednesday to Tora Prison, where Mubarak is detained in hospital, to look into the appeal.
Mubarak, who has been on trial since August 2011, has now received release orders in all the cases in which he is investigated, for spending the maximum time in jail for a defendant pending trial. However, all trials are still ongoing.
On Wednesday, he was released pending investigations in a corruption case in which he is accused of illegally receiving millions of pounds worth of gifts from state-run publisher Al-Ahram.
Mubarak has recently reimbursed money equivalent to the value of the gifts to the state, which raised the possibility of him being released.
On Monday, he was released pending trial in one of the corruption charges he faces, drawing him closer to release as the number of charges decreases.
Mubarak is currently retried in a case for charges of complicity in the killing of over 800 protesters in the January 2011 uprising, after his appeal on a life sentence was accepted.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could be freed from prison on Thursday, his lawyer told Reuters, after a court ordered his release in a corruption case that was the last remaining legal grounds for his detention.
Leaving the Cairo prison where the court convened, Fareed El-Deeb said: "The court decided to release him." Asked when, he said: "Maybe tomorrow".
Mubarak, 85, is being retried on charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his downfall. However, he has served out the maximum amount of pre-trial detention permitted in that case.
Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to prevent the killing of demonstrators. But a court accepted his appeal earlier this year and ordered a retrial.
An Egyptian court ordered the release of former President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday, a judicial and a security source said, meaning he could leave prison later in the day as there is no longer any legal grounds for his detention.
Mubarak, 85, is being retried on charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his downfall. However, he has already served out the maximum amount of pretrial detention permitted in that case.
Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to prevent the killing of demonstrators. But a court accepted his appeal earlier this year and ordered a retrial.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_08_21/Is-pharaon-to-be-released-New-future-for-Egypt-5821/
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_08_21/Is-pharaon-to-be-released-New-future-for-Egypt-5821/
No comments:
Post a Comment