Court to consider Mubarak's appeal for release

CAIRO - An Egyptian court is set to consider Monday an appeal filed by former President Hosni Mubarak asking for release from detention, state-run news agency MENA reported on Sunday.

The complaint was submitted by Mubarak's lawyer Farid al-Deeb to Cairo Court of Appeals, arguing that the 84-year-old ex- president has exceeded the maximum term of temporary detention, the report said.

"Mubarak must be released because the two-year maximum term for his temporary detention ended on April 12 according to the law," Deeb told Xinhua. The Egyptian law stipulates that the suspect would spend at most two years in provisional detention.

In April, 2011, Mubarak was arrested over alleged accusations of killing protesters in January 2011 upheaval. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in June, 2012. In January, the appeal court ordered a retrial for Mubarak due to procedural irregularities in the first ruling.

On Saturday, the retrial of Mubarak was indefinitely adjourned, as presiding judge Mustafa Hassan Abdullah withdrew from the case and referred it to the Court of Appeals again.