2 sons of Egypt's ex-president Mubarak released on bail

CAIRO, Sept. 20  - The two sons of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were released on bail pending trial over their alleged manipulation of the country's stock market, official MENA news agency reported Thursday.

Cairo Criminal Court decided to release Mubarak's two sons Gamal and Alaa, along with five other defendants, on bail of 100,000 Egyptian pounds each (about 5,600 U.S. dollars) and set Nov. 20 for the resumption of their trial.

The defendants are facing charges of violating the rules of Egypt's stock exchange market and the Central Bank of Egypt. They have been accused of making illegal profits through the Cyprus-based company in their control which acquired a majority of shares in several banks on their behalf to escape the monitor of the stock market.

The prosecution said the defendants made illegal financial gains of over 493 million Egyptian pounds (about 27.6 million dollars) by allowing a Cyprus company to get a national bank's shares through hidden deals.

On Saturday, the court ordered the arrest of the two brothers over the alleged insider trading charges, but their defense raised a motion demanding their trial before a different judge from the one who ordered their detention.

The motion was accepted and they were released on bail on Thursday and will be tried before another judge on Nov. 20.

After Mubarak's ouster in early 2011, Gamal and Alaa were in custody for a number of alleged corruption crimes.

Along with their father, the pair were sentenced in May 2015 to three years in jail for embezzling funds meant for maintaining presidential palaces.

They have been free for the past three years since their sentences were covered by the years they had already served in provisional detention and they were released in the same year.

In March 2017, Mubarak was acquitted of the charges of killing protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his ouster.