Egyptian court sentences Hosni Mubarak to 3 years in jail

, May 21: An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced ousted president

to three years in

after finding the 86-year-old leader guilty of embezzling public funds, three years after he was toppled following a popular uprising.

His two sons, 53-year-old Alaa Mubarak and 50-year-old Gamal Mubarak - were also convicted and given four-year terms for embezzling USD 17.9 million of funds earmarked for the renovation of presidential palaces.

The trio was also fined USD 17.6 million and ordered to reimburse USD 2.9 million to the state treasury. Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades, is also facing trial for abuse of power and conspiring in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that forced him to quit.

He was found guilty of the charge relating to the protesters in 2012 along with his former Interior Minister, Habib al-Adly, and sentenced to life in prison.

But in January 2013 a court upheld an appeal by them against their convictions and ordered a retrial. Mubarak was released from jail in August last year but has been kept under house arrest in a military hospital in a Cairo suburb.

PTI