Egyptian court orders Mubarak released from prison - by Abigail Hauslohner

"And the Egyptian Military Saga Continues"

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak could leave prison as early as Wednesday night, government officials and legal experts said, after a Cairo court ordered the release of the deposed autocrat who ruled Egypt for three decades.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi

Mubarak’s release would constitute a dramatic blow to the broad protest movement that forced his removal from office in February 2011. It would also lend credibility to the Islamist opposition’s claims that the old regime is reasserting itself following a July 3 military coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president. Egyptian security services in recent weeks have launched a deadly crackdown against Morsi’s allies.

The Egyptian prosecutor’s office said Mubarak would remain on the country’s no-fly list and that his assets would remain frozen.

Mubarak’s release was ordered by an Egyptian court Wednesday after the 85-year-old former air force commander agreed to return or pay the value of gifts he received from state news organizations while in office, a spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said.

It was the last of three cases brought against Mubarak since he was ousted from power in the Arab Spring uprising. Judicial authorities accepted Mubarak’s appeals for a retrial on earlier charges of corruption and killing protesters during the uprising. Other charges related to the renovation of the presidential palace were dismissed earlier for lack of evidence.

“According to our penal code, you cannot detain a person for more than two years, without indicting him,” said Badr Abdellaty, a spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry.

“So he can stay at home,” Abdellaty said, and go from there to court for his retrials

Note EU-Digest: And the Egyptian Military Saga Continues.....

Read more: Egyptian court orders Mubarak released from prison - The Washington Post