Interim PM's office says ex-president to be put under house arrest, after court order to release him in corruption case.
Egypt's interim prime minister's office has said former President
Hosni Mubarak will be placed under house arrest, following a court
ruling stating he could be released from prison pending further
investigation into corruption charges against him.
The former president, who was toppled in a 2011 uprising, has been told he can prepare for future court appearances from home.
Citing a security source, the state
news agency said Mubarak would "likely" be transported to one of the
state's vital installations or one of two military hospitals where
he will be guarded under heavy security.
Mubarak was not immediately released after the Wednesday ruling,
because he can be held for up to 48 hours pending a possible appeal.
But prosecutors said later that they would not appeal, so the ruling
removes the final legal barrier preventing the 85-year-old former
president from leaving prison. His lawyer, Farid al-Deeb, said that he
expected his client to be released as early as Thursday.
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After the fall of Muslim Brotherhood rule, Mubarak’s defence will likely shift the blame to them. |
A free Mubarak would be seen by some Egyptians as another sign of the
old regime reasserting itself, just weeks after Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s
first democratically-elected president, was toppled by the military. He
would emerge from a prison which now houses numerous senior members of
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Mubarak has already spent more than two years in pre-trial detention,
the maximum allowed under Egyptian law, and is now eligible for release
pending trial.
The courts have issued three orders since April releasing Mubarak on
various charges, and Wednesday’s ruling cleared the way for his release
on the fourth and final one. He will still face trial on
charges including complicity in killing of protesters during the 2011
revolution that toppled him and three separate corruption cases.
The bigger test for judicial independence, judicial experts say, will
be the trials themselves, particularly the charge of killing
protesters. With an army-backed interim government in power, many
observers expect to see Mubarak eventually acquitted.
"After the fall of Muslim Brotherhood rule, Mubarak’s defence will
likely shift the blame to them," said Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer at the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, referring to claims by
Mubarak’s longtime intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that the Brotherhood
was responsible for the violence during the revolution.
"[And] as for the financial corruption cases, often these cases are
settled when the amount in question is returned," she told Al Jazeera.
Corruption and murder
At least one of those cases could indeed be close to a settlement.
Wednesday’s ruling concerns the so-called "Ahram gifts" case, in which
Mubarak allegedly accepted $11m worth of gifts, including jewelry and
watches, from the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram.
He has allegedly already repaid the amount of the gifts, and the
other defendants in the case have been released, suggesting that the
charges against Mubarak could eventually be dropped.
He also faces charges of embezzling money from a fund earmarked for
presidential palace renovations. A judge working on this case ordered
him released on Monday, on the same procedural grounds. A separate
charge accuses him of "illicit gains" during his presidency.
Mubarak was convicted last year of involvement in the murder of
protesters during the 2011 uprising, and sentenced to life in prison,
but was granted a retrial earlier this year. His next hearing is
scheduled for August 25.
Many of Mubarak's ministers and top
aides have been acquitted in trials following the revolution. Activists
blame the judiciary, much of which was appointed during Mubarak’s
30-year rule, while judges argue they have been overwhelmed by the
workload and often handed cases that lack solid evidence.
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