Mubarak sons to face new Egypt trial for corruption

CAIRO - Agence France-Presse

Alaa (R) and Gamal Mubarak, the sons of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, when they played for the Egyptian El-Sokour team, in Cairo. The deposed leader's sons, already on trial for corruption with their father, will face a new separate trial for corrupt stock market dealings. AFP Photo

Deposed Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak's sons, already on trial for corruption with their father, will face a new separate case for alleged corrupt stock market dealings, state media reported today.
 
The official Nile Television reported that Alaa and Gamal Mubarak would go on trial in a criminal court with seven other defendants. They and their father are facing a verdict on June 2 on corruption charges in the first trial.
 
The ex-president, who was toppled in an early 2011 revolt, also faces murder charges with seven security commanders for killings of protesters during the 18-day uprising that ended his three-decade rule.
 
The official MENA news agency reported the charges stem from the sale of Al-Watany Bank of Egypt.
 
The defendants had agreed on acquiring a majority of the bank's shares by buying out small shareholders through front companies without revealing it on the stock market, the agency reported.
 
They made more than two billion pounds (about $300 million) from the deal which they transferred abroad, the agency reported.
 
Gamal, 48, headed a powerful policy committee in the ruling party under his father and was widely seen as the heir apparent, a perception that helped fuel the uprising.
 
Alaa, the older son, stayed out of politics but was rumoured to have amassed a fortune using his father's connections. They are currently on trial for allegedly accepting villas as a bribe.
 
The Mubarak sons are in a Cairo jail awaiting the outcome of the trial on June 2, with their 84-year-old father detained in a military hospital where he receives treatment for a heart condition.
 
Mubarak, his interior minister Habib al-Adly and six police commanders are also accused of ordering the deaths of some of the estimated 850 protesters killed during the uprising that forced him to resign on February 11.
 
The verdict will come at a sensitive time as Mubarak's last premier, Ahmed Shafiq, battles the Islamist Mohammed Mursi in a tense presidential election runoff scheduled for June 16-17.
 
The prosecution's case against the Mubaraks has been accused by critics of relying on patchwork evidence that may yet see the defendants acquitted or winning an appeal.
 
The prosecution has asked for the death penalty against Mubarak.