Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - A criminal court on Thursday acquitted the two sons of toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after they were charged with embezzlement, Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent reported.

Alaa and Jamal were accused of taking 125 million Egyptian pounds ($17 million) that were supposed to be channelled as public funds for the maintenance of presidential palaces.

Their lawyer Farid al-Deeb told the local Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper that Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat issued their release over the case.

The news comes after a lower court handed down a jail sentence against Mubarak and his sons in May last year for embezzling the money.

Meanwhile, Mubarak’s three-year prison sentence on corruption charges was overturned by a court on Jan. 13.
The court also ordered a retrial in the case, the only one still pending against him.

*Al Arabiya