Cairo Criminal Court has on Saturday acquitted two sons of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Alaa and Gamal of illicit share trading during the sale of a bank. The sale dates back four years before the 2011 uprising that ended Mubarak's 30-year autocratic rule. In 2007, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak as well as seven others had faced charges of illegally profiting from the process of selling the Al Watany Bank of Egypt to the National Bank of Kuwait. The Cairo Criminal Court session was held at a police academy for security reasons, and heard the verdict acquitting all the defendants. The public prosecution has the right to appeal, judicial sources stated. Alaa and Gamal, detained after the 2011 uprising, were sentenced to three years in jail in 2015, along with their father, after being separately in charges related to diverting public funds and using the money to upgrade family properties. Yet, the two brothers were released soon after the ruling because they had spent time in detention pending the case. Their father was released in 2017 after being cleared of charges of ordering the killing protesters during the uprising. Source: Reuters
