Egypt: Mubarak cleared in corruption case, lawyer says will be released soon

http://www.egyptindependent.com/

On Monday, the Cairo Criminal Court cleared former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak of financial corruption related to the renovation of presidential palaces during his rule. Mostafa Baz, Assistant Interior Minister for the Prisons Sector, said Mubarak will remain in custody pending investigation over charges of obtaining illicit gifts from the state-run al-Ahram press organization. The only legal grounds for Mubarak's continued detention rest on another corruption case which will be cleared up later this week, Mubarak’s lawyer, Farid al-Deeb told Reuters. "All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours. He should be freed by the end of the week," Deeb said. Former Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah had referred Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, to trial over charges of seizing general budget allocations devoted for the renovation of presidential palaces. Mubarak and his sons had been accused of seizing more than LE1 billion over the past 10 years. The Administrative Control Authority said that Mubarak abused his power as president for profiteering and acquiring huge sums from the state budget to perform fake construction at the presidential palaces. The money was instead alleged to have been directed to private villas. Once disclosed, media referred to the case as the biggest instance of corruption under the former leader who stepped down in 2011 over massive popular protests. The criminal court on Monday returned the case to prosecution services in order to add new defendants. Mubarak had been released pending investigations over other charges but has remained in custody as he is still facing trials over multiple other charges of murder and corruption, including this case.