EU Court Upholds Move to Freeze Assets of Ex Egyptian President Mubarak's Family

"The General Court upholds the Council’s decision to freeze the assets of members of the Hosni Mubarak family, on the basis of judicial proceedings relating to misappropriation of Egyptian State funds," the court said in a published statement.

The court added that the council had sufficient information about the political and judicial context in Egypt to adopt the decision.

In September, Hosni Mubarak's sons Gamal and Alaa and their former business partners were arrested within the case on stock market fraud during their father's rule, but were released on bail later the same month. The sons of the ex-president rejected the accusations.

Egypt's Court Acquits Ex-President Mubarak on Charges of 2011 Protester Killings

2 March 2017, 15:13 GMT

After the coup of 2011 in Egypt, the council imposed restrictive measures against certain individuals found guilty of embezzling Egyptian public funds. The decision to freeze was taken as part of a policy of supporting a peaceful transition to the formation of a civil and democratic government in Egypt. The plaintiffs demanded to overturn decisions that extended the freezing of their assets in 2016 and 2017, believing that they had no legal basis and claiming that Egypt's judiciary did not provide the right to effective legal protection or presumption of innocence.

When former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, a number of former ministers, businessmen and lawmakers were arrested. However, most of them were later acquitted and released. A number of businessmen entered into "friendly agreements" with the state to avoid prosecution.

The mentioned coup took place in February 2011, when Mubarak resigned amid protests in the country and the following year he received a life sentence for "failure to stop the killings" during the 18-day uprising that left over 800 people dead. The court’s decision was appealed and a new trial was ordered. Mubarak was discharged on every count of being involved in the killing of protesters in 2014. The Prosecutor General's Office appealed the court's decision, claiming a number of procedural irregularities had taken place. In early March 2017, the Egyptian Court of Cassation acquitted Mubarak of charges of complicity in the deaths of protesters. The Egyptian General Prosecutor’s Office agreed to release Mubarak on March 13.