The Cairo Court of Cassation accepted Tuesday the appeal presented by the defence team of former president Hosni Mubarak and his sons in the presidential palaces embezzlement case, and ordered a retrial. Last May, Mubarak was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of embezzling public funds to cover and renovate personal expenses. His lawyer, Farid El-Deeb, told state media Tuesday that his client will be released, as he has already served his three-year sentence. The charges of killing protesters against the former president, who has been serving his sentence in the Maadi army hospital, were dropped last November. However, the public prosecution appealed the previous verdict. Mubarak was first detained on 12 April, 2011, facing investigations into corruption and abuse of power, and he remained in prison until he was released on 19 August, 2013. He was imprisoned pending investigations in the embezzlement case from 7 April, 2013 until 19 August, 2013 and again from 21 May, 2014 until now.
