Egypt's Mubarak to Pay Back Gifts

Egypt's prosecution on Wednesday accepted an offer by ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family to pay back gifts from the country's flagship newspaper worth millions of Egyptian pounds.

Mubarak, his wife Suzanne, his two sons Alaa and Gamal and their wives allegedly accepted gifts from al-Ahram worth 18 million Egyptian pounds (around $2.7 million) between 2006 and 2011.

The 84-year-old, who is currently being treated in a Cairo military hospital, was questioned last week about the gifts and ordered detained pending investigation.

Last week, an Egyptian court ordered a retrial for Mubarak after accepting an appeal against the life sentence handed him for his involvement in the deaths of protesters in 2011.

Mubarak, 84, his two sons, his former interior minister Habib al-Adly and top security chiefs will face a new trial, the Court of Cassation, the top appeals court, ruled after a very brief hearing.

No date has yet been set for the new trial.

Mubarak will however remain in custody, his lawyer told AFP.

"He will remain in prison until April," Farid al-Deeb said without elaborating.

Following sentencing in June last year, Mubarak was moved to Tora prison in south Cairo after spending 16 months in hospitals in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and then in Cairo.

He has since suffered several health scares and is currently being treated for fractured ribs and fluid in the lungs at a military hospital in the capital.