Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah decided Saturday to challenge a misdemeanor court's decision to release former President Hosni Mubarak in an ongoing graft case. Nasr City Misdemeanor Court of Appeal had accepted the appeal Mubarak submitted on the Illicit Gains Authority's decision to detain him. The court ruled to release him. Mubarak was ordered released pending investigations for his retrial on charges of involvement in killing demonstrators during the 25 January revolution. But he was also ordered detained for 15 days pending investigations in the graft case, a decision he appealed. The Public Prosecution had previously noted that Mubarak is being detained pending three cases on charges of graft, illegally restoring presidential palaces and receiving illegal gifts from national press institutions. However, a court has not yet considered whether to detain him on the latter two charges. Mubarak's historic trial last year had been set to put him and his former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, behind bars for 25 years. But a court accepted Mubarak's appeal of the sentence because of procedural problems with the case, and he was granted a retrial. Egyptian law allows a defendant to remain in custody for up to two years pending trial.
