On 20 September, five days after they were detained on longstanding charges of insider trading, a Cairo criminal court ordered the release on bail of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's two sons Alaa and Gamal, reports Gamal Essam El-Din. Alaa and Gamal Mubarak's defence team had filed an appeal against their detention and the two were released on LE100,000 bail each. The pair stand accused of violating stock market and the central bank regulations in order to make illegal gains in a case that dates from the last years of the Mubarak presidency. On 15 September, after the brothers were ordered to be detained pending investigations into the alleged manipulation of the stock market, the two were transferred to custody in south Cairo's Tora prison. The case centres on the brothers' purchase of shares in Al-Watany Bank when they had advance knowledge it was about to become the target of a takeover which pushed share prices up and secured huge profits for the pair. Prosecution authorities say the defendants made an estimated LE2 billion from the transaction. They are alleged to have concealed their involvement in the purchase and subsequent sale of the shares to the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), using offshore funds based in Cyprus to finance the purchase and then channelling the profits abroad. The Mubarak brothers' five co-defendants in the case include Yasser Al-Mallawani and Hassan Heikal. Al-Mallawani is currently a board member of Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes; Heikal is a past board member. Both were released on bail. The next session in the case is scheduled for 20 November. In its 20 September ruling the court ordered the release of Alaa and Gamal after Mubarak family lawyer Farid Al-Deeb successfully argued the brothers had served the maximum pre-trial detention period — between 30 May 2012 and June 2013 — and could not be held again. “Both my clients have appeared before the court when required and a report prepared by a technical committee of experts affiliated with the Central Bank of Egypt has already concluded they were not involved in any corrupt practices,” Al-Deeb told the court. “The report concluded the case was based on an incorrect piece of information implicating the two in insider trading,” the lawyer continued. “Gamal and Alaa came to the court on 15 September expecting a final judgement and were surprised when the court ordered their detention.” Al-Deeb was less successful in arguing before the Court of Cassation that former president Hosni Mubarak and his sons should have their political rights restored. On 22 September the court rejected a request by Al-Deeb to reinstate his clients' political rights after they were removed following the trio's 2015 conviction in what was popularly known as the Presidential Palaces case. The Mubaraks received three-year jail sentences after they were found guilty of embezzling LE125 million from public funds intended for the maintenance of presidential palaces and redirecting the money to the upkeep of private residences. Mubarak's two sons were nonetheless released in 2015, having already spent three years in jail. Their father was freed last year. Following the conviction the Mubaraks were stripped from exercising their political rights for six years.
