Last week, Cairo prosecution appealed a ruling by the Court of Cassation regarding the release of Gamal and Alaa Mubarak. The prosecution wants the sons of the former president returned to prison for eight more months after a miscalculation of the period they had already spent in jail. It was reported that an informed source in the prosecution had said Gamal and Alaa could return to Tora Prison to serve out the remaining months of the three-year sentence they received after being convicted on graft charges in the so-called “case of the presidential palaces”. Early this year the court ruled that Mubarak's sons had served their time in jail because the period they had already spent in detention before their trial was taken into account. But the prosecution claimed that Gamal and Alaa were jailed for crimes unrelated to the palaces case, and that, as such, the time spent was not part of the sentence. Mubarak and his two sons were found guilty of stealing LE125 million allocated for the presidential palaces. In an initial verdict in May 2014, Mubarak received a three-year sentence while his sons received four years each. The sentence was reduced to three years after an appeal. The three were fined a total of LE125 million and ordered to pay an additional LE21 million to the country in penalties. The trio appealed their convictions early this month but were turned down. It would not be the first time Gamal and Alaa Mubarak have been returned to jail. They were released in January 2015 but returned to Tora Prison in May for a few more months. They were released in October of the same year. Aliya Al-Mahdi, a professor of political science at Cairo University, believes the prosecution's decision was taken to end any and all political hopes for Gamal and Alaa. “They want them to be banned from exercising any political activities in the future. According to the law, crimes which involve a breach of honour are not subject to presidential pardon and will prevent the defendant from exercising any political activity for at least six years,” Al-Mahdi said. “This verdict guarantees the end of the Mubarak era forever,” Al-Mahdi added. Osama Ebeid, a member of the brothers' defence team, said they had already been detained in the presidential palaces case and will still have to return the LE125 million embezzled in addition to a LE21 million fine. “All their properties and banking assets will be sequestered until they pay the entire LE146 million. Meanwhile, Interior Ministry officials said the amount could be taken from the Mubarak family money that is sequestered,” Ebeid said. Mubarak's lawyer, Fareed Al-Deeb, said he would have to study the decision “to figure out what could be done in this regard”. Al-Deeb said he believed there was a conspiracy to tarnish the reputation of his clients and keep them in prison. “This is unfair. None of the figures of the previous regime have faced what the Mubaraks are facing now,” he said. “No one has been humiliated as they are being now. This has to stop.”
