Hosni Mubarak, former president of Egypt, was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment Wednesday, for embezzling millions in public funds.
Mubarak, 86, is under house arrest at a military hospital in Cairo since August. Before that he spent 23 months in jail after he was overthrown as the president. Mubarak's sons, Alaa and Gamal, were also sentenced for the same charges. The court ordered 4 years of jail to both. They were accused of stealing around $17.6 million to renovate presidential palaces. They were fined 21.1 million Egyptian pounds and ordered to repay the state an additional 125 million pounds.
The former dictator and his sons paid nearly $17. 9 million prior to the proceedings, reports The Los Angeles Times.
Egyptian law sentences a convict for embezzlement depending on the nature of the crime, but 15 years' imprisonment is not uncommon, reports the Associated Press.
In June 2012 Mubarak was found guilty of failing to stop the killing of more than 900 demonstrators during the 18-day uprising against his rule. Consequently, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, the ruling was overturned in January 2013. Prosecutors appealed the decision and a fresh trial began last April. He was released August last year pending his graft trial, but was kept at a military hospital in a suburb south of Cairo. Due to his deteriorating health Mubarak will likely serve his sentence in the hospital, AP reports.
"He (Mubarak) should have treated people close and far from him equally," said Judge Osama Shahee, reports Reuters. "Instead of abiding by the constitution and laws, he gave himself and his sons the freedom to take from public funds whatever they wanted to without oversight and without regard."
According to Haaretz, other convicts were sentenced to between 3 to 10 years in jail on the charges of instigating violence and chaos and membership in a banned group.
