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Alaa (R) and Gamal Mubarak, sons of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak

CAIRO — Alaa and Jamal, the two sons of Egypt’s ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, were freed from prison yesterday pending a graft retrial, state media reported. They left jail early yesterday after a court ordered their release because they had served the maximum pretrial 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 Jamal 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 Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, a former army chief whom opponents accuse of reviving Mubarak-era practices.

Al Sissi took power after ousting Egypt’s first post-revolution leader — Islamist president Mohammad Mursi – in 2013 and won an election with massive support last year.

But he has faced accusations of being even more authoritarian than Mubarak, unleashing a crackdown on Mursi supporters that has killed at least 1,400 people.

The release of the Mubaraks so close to the January 25 anniversary of the 2011 revolt risks antagonising government critics. — AFP