An Egyptian court sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons to three years in jail without parole yesterday in the retrial of a corruption case, although the trio is unlikely to go to jail again.
Mubarak, who ruled Egypt with an iron fist for 30 years, and his sons Gamal and Alaa already spent at least three years each in prison for other cases, so will probably not have to serve out the sentence.
The retrial was of a case in which Mubarak was sentenced to three years in prison in May last year on charges of diverting public funds and using the money to upgrade family properties. His two sons were given four-year jail terms in the same case.
But Egypt’s high court later overturned the convictions and ordered a retrial.
“The ruling of the court is three years in prison without parole for Mohamed Hosni Mubarak and Gamal Mohamed Hosni Mubarak and Alaa Mohamed Hosni Mubarak,” Judge Hassan Hassanein announced yesterday.
Mubarak’s treatment by the courts since being toppled from the presidency during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings has been perceived by his opponents as too lenient and raised doubts about Egypt’s transition towards democracy.
The former air force commander was toppled from the presidency during the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region in 2011
Charges against him of conspiring to kill protesters during the uprising, centred around Cairo’s Tahrir Square, were dropped, and some of his associates were released from jail.
Egypt is slowly recovering from the upheaval that followed Mubarak’s downfall.
Elected President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the latest man from the military to rule the Arab world’s most populous country, removed the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi from power in 2013 after mass protests against his troubled one-year rule.
Security forces then cracked down on the Brotherhood and its supporters and later began jailing liberal activists opposed to what human rights groups call a return to repression.
The US-backed Egyptian government says it is committed to democracy.
Many Egyptians turned a blind eye to the toughest security crackdown in the country’s history for the sake of stability after street protests and attacks by militant groups gutted the tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.
Militants based in the Sinai, who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, have killed hundreds of police and soldiers since the army toppled Morsi.
Yesterday, one policeman and three Muslim Brotherhood supporters were killed in clashes in the city of Damietta, the Interior Ministry said.