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CAIRO. — An Egyptian court yesterday sentenced deposed president Hosni Mubarak to three years in prison on corruption charges, in one of two trials after the 2011 uprising that ended his rule.
His sons Alaa and Gamal each received four-year jail terms, and four other defendants were acquitted. They were accused of embezzling about US$14 million earmarked for the maintenance of presidential palaces.
Mubarak (86), wearing a grey suit, sat on a wheelchair in the caged dock for the verdict. His sons, in white prison issue clothing, stood beside him.
Mubarak had technically been a free man after a court ordered his release last year following the end of the permitted detention period, but has since remained out of sight in a military hospital.
He is now likely to be returned to prison.
“The owners of public property are the people,” said judge Osama Shaheen before reading out the verdict.
“We will appeal,” Mostafa Ali As, one of Mubarak’s lawyers said after the ruling.
Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 over the killings of protesters during the 18-day uprising that ended his three-decade rule.
A court overturned that verdict on technical grounds, and he is now being retried along with seven police commanders. — AFP
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