Mubarak’s Lawyer Appeals Verdict On Presidential Palace Funds

Farid El-Deeb, the lawyer of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, has appealed a May ruling which sentenced the longtime autocrat and his two sons to jail for embezzling funds earmarked for the renovation of presidential palaces.

The verdict in May from a Cairo criminal court sentenced Mubarak to three years in jail and his sons, Gamal and Alaa, to four years each on charges of taking LE125 million ($17.9 million) from the palace renovation budget.

The three were fined the same amount and ordered to pay back LE21.2 million ($2.9 million) to the state treasury.

Four other defendants were acquitted in the case.

It’s not the first trial Mubarak has faced since he was removed power by the 2011 uprising.

A separate corruption case was settled by him returning gifts he had received from state-run institutions.

This month has seen the televised retrial of a June 2012 verdict which sentenced Mubarak and his interior minister Habib El-Adly to life imprisonment for conspiring to kill protesters during the 2011 revolt. The sentence was overturned on appeal in January 2013 and a retrial was ordered on account of “procedural failings.”

Last week, the court announced that the final verdict in the case will be announced on 27 September.

Mubarak, 86, has spent much of his detention in hospitals due to his fragile health.

Source : Ahram online