Former Egyptian minister released from jail

Hosni Mubarak’s interior minister was released from Tora Prison on Wednesday, Egypt’s state-owned MENA has reported. Habib Al-Adly spent more than four years in prison and was released by order of the Public Prosecutor.

The former interior minister was arrested days after the ouster of Mubarak in 2011 and has faced a total of four trials, only one of which led to a jail sentence. He was handed a three-year sentence, which was upheld in February 2014, for exploiting his position by ordering soldiers to carry out personal work at his home.

Adly’s lawyer said recently that his client has already served his three-year prison sentence, which could see his release from custody if the court acquits him in one more case. Last week, a Giza court did just that, acquitting him of graft charges amounting to 181 million Egyptian pounds and paving the way for his release.

Like several of Mubarak’s top officials, Adly faced a number of charges after the disgraced president’s removal in February 2011. Last November, along with Mubarak, he was also acquitted of charges of inciting and aiding the killing of protesters.