(ANSAmed) – CAIRO – Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will be released from detention within the next 48 hours. The announcement was made by one of his lawyers, Fareed El-Deeb, confirming that the prosecution has acquitted him of all corruption charges except for alleged bribes received from a publisher. Prosecution sources contacted by ANSA have confirmed that the former leader will be released ”this week”.

Mubarak “will get his military rank back” as general, and “will be released within the next 48 hours, to then go either home or to a military hospital”, ANSA was told by the former Egyptian president’s lawyer, Fareed El-Deeb. “He has not been convicted, and so he has a right to be released from prison. He will get his military rank back, and an appeal has been lodged for the Al-Arah case. In any case, he has already given the money back,” El-Deeb told ANSA. The former leader “will leave the Tora jail and will go either home or to a military hospital”. ”The judges will be the ones to decide,” his lawyer added.

Mubarak – noted the sources – was charged in connection with four different legal proceedings. The most serious is for failing to stop the killing of protestors in 2011, for which he was handed down a life sentence: a decision later annulled. A retrial will be held but with no requirement for him to be held in detention while proceedings are underway. There are also three cases for alleged illicit gains, graft and the payment of bribes attributed to the director of the state-run daily Al-Ahram, which has the widest circulation in the country. The sources say that the first two have already passed the statute of limitation, as the charges were not made official within 18 months of when the former president was taken into detention. The last case does not seem to warrant continuing his detention, as it is simply an administrative procedure.

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