The South Cairo Criminal Court decided in its Saturday session to adjourn the trial of Alaa and Gamal Mubarak and seven others on charges of manipulating the stock exchange to 7 October, in order to discuss the prosecution's first witness at the request of the defense.
In its session held on 9 May, the court listened to the statements of Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, who denied the charges against them regarding the manipulating the stock exchange and the illegal gain of more than EGP2.051 billion, along with 7 others.
Farid al-Deeb, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak’s lawyer, demanded the release of his clients; since they were ordered detained for 15 days on 9 February 2012, he argued that they may not continue to be detained since their charges fall under the category of a misdemeanor.
Deeb also based his request on the fact that all other defendants were released except for Alaa and Gamal.
The Judge responded to Deeb’s request by saying the law has the final say in the matter and asked Deeb to submit the documents that demonstrate the lack of the court’s right to detain the defendants.
Public Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud referred former President Hosni Mubarak’s sons, along with seven other people, to criminal court in May.
Investigations suggest the defendants obtained the money by manipulating the stock exchange, Assistant Prosecutor Adel al-Saeed said in a previous statement.
Saeed said the defendants broke provisions of the capital market and central bank laws by agreeing to control the Al-Watany Bank of Egypt shares and creating a share for themselves. They allegedly buried and then sold the largest proportion of small investors’ shares, but did not disclose this to the stock exchange.
The defendants are also accused of concealing their identities during the bank share dealings through cluster companies and personal closed investment funds, located in Cyprus and the British Isles, and transferring their profits abroad.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
