CAIRO // The two sons of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were released from prison on Monday, nearly four years after they were first arrested along with their father.
Security officials said Alaa and Gamal walked free from Torah prison in a southern Cairo suburb shortly after daybreak and headed to their respective homes in the capital’s upscale Heliopolis suburb.
State media reported on Friday that they had been released, but prison officials said on Sunday their release was delayed at the last minute, to avoid further inflaming opponents of the new government.
On Sunday, the fourth anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, at least 23 people were killed in anti-government protests in the country – the bloodiest day of protests since Abdel Fattah El Sisi was elected president in June.
Both men, along with their father, still face a retrial on corruption charges.
Separately, the they also face trial on insider trading charges. They have been acquitted of other charges.
Mr Mubarak, 86 and ailing, stepped down in February 2011 in the face of a popular uprising. He and his two sons were arrested in April that year.
Mr Mubarak remains at a military hospital in a southern suburb of Cairo although there are no longer any legal grounds for his detention.
The Mubarak sons were sentenced to four years in prison, while their father for three years, on charges of using state funds to renovate family residencies. The sentences were overturned earlier this month.
In 2012, Mr Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for failing to prevent the killing of some 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising against his rule. That verdict also was overturned on appeal. He was retried but the case was dismissed last month on a technicality.
The two, particularly Gamal, are viewed by many Egyptians as among the pillars of an authoritarian and corrupt administration that struck an alliance with mega-wealthy businessmen at the expense of the nation’s poor and disadvantaged.
Mr Mubarak was widely believed to have been grooming Gamal to succeed him. The release of the two sons could spark further protests and would certainly fuel the notion among the secular and liberal activists behind the 2011 uprising that the Mubarak regime has been making a comeback since Mr El Sisi, who served as the former strongman’s military intelligence chief, took office in June.
* Associated Press, with additional reporting from Agence France-Presse
