13th January, 2015
An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned a three-year prison sentence against ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak on corruption charges and ordered a retrial in the sole case still pending against him.
In November, another court had dropped murder charges against the 86-year-old former leader over the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his three decades of autocratic rule.
A lower court had handed down the jail sentence against Mubarak in May last year after convicting him of embezzling more than 100,000 Egyptian pounds (about $14 million, 10 million euros) earmarked for the maintenance of presidential palaces.
It had also handed down four-year jail sentences against the toppled leader’s sons, Alaa and Gamal.
The Court of Cassation did not specify whether Mubarak was a free man following its judgement.
But his lawyer Farid al-Deeb told AFP that his client ought to go free as he “has already served” three years in prison.