The Court of Cassation will conduct its first session Tuesday on the appeal against the previous verdict in the presidential palaces case. Ousted president Hosni Mubarak was tried along with his two sons for embezzling almost EGP 126m from state funds in the case. The court sentenced Mubarak in May to three years in a maximum security prison, and his sons Alaa and Gamal to four years each. The court also fined the three collectively EGP 125m in addition to repaying EGP 21m. Mubarak and his sons are charged with acquiring almost EGP 126m from the Presidential Palace budget and using the money for the construction and development of family-owned assets. Two appeals to the sentence were filed both by general prosecution demanding tougher sentence and by Mubarak's defence demanding the sentence's annulment. Whether the court cassation will accept or reject the appeals, Mubarak will be released as he will complete the three years sentence in prison on 17 January. Mubarak was first detained on 12 April 2011 facing investigations about corruption and abuse of power and he remained in prison until he was released from prison on 19 August 2013. He was imprisoned pending investigations in the palaces case from 7 April 2013 until 19 August 2013 and again from 21 May 2014 until now. Human rights lawyer and director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information Gama Eid said: "According to the Egyptian legal system, which I have a lot of disagreements with, it is right. He will be released." He said that legally, Mubarak will be released as he accumulatively served his sentence in prison despite being imprisoned for different trials for part of the sentence's time. The cassation prosecution sent a memoir to the Cassation Court to recommend accepting the general prosecution's appeal, according to Al-Shorouk newspaper. If the court accepted the prosecution's appeal there will be a retrial and the criminal court's sentence will be annulled and Mubarak will be released. Cairo Criminal Court dismissed in November murder charges against Mubarak in the case regarding the killing of protesters. It also acquitted him from graft charges relating to the sale of natural gas. Mubarak spent most of his imprisonment in Maadi Military hospital as his health has been unstable since 2010 according to media reports and his defence lawyers. Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered in December an appeal of the verdict of the retrial of the ousted president, citing "legal flaws". Thousands of people gathered in Tahrir Square on 28 November to protest the court's decision to drop Mubarak's murder charges for his role in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the 25 January Revolution. Several protesters were arrested in the protest, however a Cairo court acquitted Saturday all four protesters charged with illegal protesting amid other charges, according to Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression.
