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Hosni Mubarak

CAIRO. — Two sons of Egypt’s ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, seen as symbols of his era’s corruption, were freed from prison yesterday pending a graft retrial, state media reported.Alaa and Gamal Mubarak left jail early yesterday after a court ordered their release because they had served the maximum pre-trial detention, the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website.

Mubarak, who was unseated in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, was convicted by a lower court on corruption charges with his two sons last year, with Alaa and Gamal receiving four-year sentences.

Their charges included embezzling at least $16 million earmarked for the maintenance of presidential palaces.

The retrial of the former leader and his two sons was ordered this month and their lawyer Farid al-Deeb said at the time that the elder Mubarak, who is in a military hospital, would also be a free man.

But state media reported there had been no orders yet for his release and there have been no signs of the 86-year-old leaving the hospital.

The release of the Mubaraks presents a dilemma for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former army chief whom opponents accuse of reviving Mubarak-era practices. — AFP.