Mubarak’s sons cleared of graft

CAIRO: Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, Ahmed Shafik, will soon be free to return from self-imposed exile and perhaps to make a political comeback after Egyptian courts on Thursday acquitted him in a corruption case and shelved another.
Shafik left Egypt last year after he was defeated in the presidential election by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muhammad Mursi.
Several corruption cases were brought against Shafik during Mursi’s rule, which was cut short in July when he was deposed by the army after mass protests against his rule.
Judicial sources said the court had sent the final case against Shafik back to the prosecutor, who must now decide whether to dismiss it or order more investigations into the charges, which relate to illegal allocation of state-owned land.
A separate ruling acquitted Shafik and Mubarak’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, in a different corruption case. Alaa and Gamal Mubarak remain in prison charged in other corruption cases.
The rulings mean Shafik’s name will be removed within days from a list of people whose arrest has been ordered, assuming no other cases are filed against him, judicial sources said. Shafik’s return would reflect the shifting balance of power in Egypt since the army removed Mursi and set the Arab world’s largest nation on a new political course designed to lead to presidential and parliamentary elections next year.