CAIRO: Deposed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak will leave jail as early as Thursday after a court ruling that jolted a divided nation already in turmoil seven weeks after the army toppled President Mohammed Mursi.
Convening on Wednesday at the Cairo jail where Mubarak is held, the court upheld a petition from his lawyer demanding the release of the man who ruled Egypt for 30 years until he was overthrown during the uprisings that swept the Arab world in early 2011.
Judicial and security sources said the court had ordered Mubaraks release. His lawyer Fareed Al Deeb confirmed this as he left Tora prison after the session. Asked when Mubarak would go free, he told Reuters: Maybe tomorrow.
Mubarak, 85, was sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to prevent the killing of demonstrators. But a court accepted his appeal earlier this year and ordered a retrial.
The ailing former president probably has no political future. But many Egyptians would see his release as the rehabilitation of an old order that endured through six decades of military-backed rule – and even a reversal of the pro-democracy revolt that toppled him.
Mubarak is still being retried on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during the revolt against him, but he has already served the maximum pre-trial detention in that case.
The court ruling removed the last legal ground for his imprisonment in connection with a corruption case, following a similar decision in another corruption case on Monday.
Mubaraks release might stir more turbulence in Egypt, where the army ousted Mursi, the countrys first freely elected leader, on July 3.
The generals have installed an interim administration to oversee a roadmap they say will lead Egypt to back to democracy.
The authorities now portray their quarrel with the Brotherhood, Egypts best-organised political force, as a fight against terrorism and are jailing its leaders, detaining the groups general guide, Mohamed Badie, in Cairo on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which along with Kuwait have promised Egypt $12 billion in aid since Mursis ouster, have frowned on Mubaraks detention all along. Arab diplomats said the Gulf nations had lobbied for the release of a man they once valued as a strong regional ally.
Mubaraks trial, when he appeared in a courtroom cage, and his jailing also affronted some Egyptian officers. One colonel, who asked not to be named, said the treatment of the former supreme military commander had tarnished the armys image.
The United States, a close ally of Egypt since Cairo signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, said on Tuesday that the crackdown on protesters could influence US aid. It denied reports it had already suspended assistance.
At issue is the future of about $1.23 million in US military assistance and $241 million in economic aid to Egypt.
The arrest of Badie, the Brotherhoods leader, is part of a wave of detentions among the upper echelons of the organisation.
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