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Egypt’s high court overturned the only remaining conviction against Hosni Mubarak and ordered a retrial in his embezzlement case, opening the way for a possible release from jail for the ousted former president.
Mubarak, 86, was sentenced to three years in prison in May for diverting public funds earmarked to renovate presidential palaces and using the money to upgrade family properties.
His two sons were given four-year jail terms in the same case.
The man who ruled Egypt for 30 years has been serving his sentence in a military hospital in Cairo.
Now that a retrial has been ordered, judicial sources say Mubarak could walk free as no convictions remain against him.
In November, another court dropped charges against Mubarak for conspiring to kill protesters in the 2011 revolt that toppled him from power, and cleared him in two other graft cases.
He faces retrial for a third and final time over charges of involvement in the death of demonstrators.
The decision to drop the charges in November sparked protests at universities across Egypt and prompted mockery online.
At least two people were killed and nine wounded when security forces fired tear gas and birdshot to disperse about 1,000 protesters trying to enter Tahrir Square – the symbolic heart of the uprising that ousted Mubarak.
In August 2014 Mubarak stood trial for the killing of protesters who eventually drove him from office.
The Court of Cassation, which ordered the retrial on Tuesday, did not say if Mubarak would be freed on bail pending his retrial in the outstanding cases. Many Egyptians who lived through Mubarak’s rule view it as a period of autocracy and crony capitalism.
His overthrow led to Egypt’s first free election. But the Islamist victor, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted in 2013 by then-army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, following protests against his rule.- Al Jazeera
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