Egyptian court acquits Mubarak's sons of illicit share trading

The two sons of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were acquitted on Saturday of illicit share trading during the sale of a bank four years before the 2011 uprising that ended their father's 30-year autocratic rule.

Alaa and Gamal Mubarak and seven others had faced charges of illegally profiting from the process of selling the Al Watany Bank of Egypt to the National Bank of Kuwait in 2007.

Both men, who denied wrongdoing, attended Saturday's Cairo Criminal Court session, which was held at a police academy for security reasons, and heard the verdict acquitting all the defendants.

The public prosecution has the right to appeal, judicial sources said.

The pair, detained after the 2011 popular uprising, were sentenced to three years in jail in 2015, along‮ ‬with their father, after being separately convicted of diverting public funds and using the money to upgrade family properties.

However, the two brothers were released soon after the ruling because they had spent time in detention pending the case. Their father was freed in 2017 after being cleared of charges of ordering the killing protesters during the uprising.