Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak jailed for embezzlement

In February, the Mubaraks were accused of diverting $17.6m meant for maintenance of presidential palaces to renovate their own private residences in Cairo and on the Red Sea coast, as well as a family farm.

They denied the charge and asserted at the trial that the prosecution’s case was “completely unsubstantiated because it never happened”.

But on Tuesday, Judge Osama Shaheen told the court: “He should have treated people close and far from him equally.

“Instead of abiding by the constitution and laws, he gave himself and his sons the freedom to take from public funds whatever they wanted to without oversight and without regard.”

Mubarak sat in the caged dock in a wheelchair, wearing a grey suit. His sons stood beside him in white prison uniforms.

One of their lawyers, Mostafa Ali As, said they would appeal.

Four other defendants in the case were acquitted.

It was not immediately clear whether the 23 months that Mubarak and his sons have spent in custody would count towards their sentences.

The state-run newspaper, al-Ahram, reported that the court had ordered that Mubarak be transferred to Torah prison, where his sons are being held. His health may mean that he will be sent to the prison’s hospital.

The conviction comes just a few days before a presidential election that former military chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who served as military intelligence chief under Mubarak, is widely expected to win.

The now-retired field marshal overthrew Mubarak’s democratically elected successor, Mohammed Morsi, in July following mass opposition protests.

Mr Morsi was in turn put on trial on a variety of charges, including incitement to murder, espionage and fraud.

BBC News

UM– USEKE.RW