Egypt court orders arrest of Mubarak's sons over stock market manipulation

An Egyptian criminal court has ordered the arrest of ousted President Hosni Mubarak's two sons on charges of stock market manipulation, the state news agency MENA has said.

Gamal and Alaa Mubarak are accused alongside three other people of failing to notify the stock market of agreements to acquire majorities in several banks through front companies.

The accused attended a hearing at a criminal court in Cairo on Saturday, where a judge ordered their arrest, and they will be transferred to custody, the same judicial source said.

They deny any wrongdoing, the Reuters news agency reported.

The three other men, including Yasser El Mallawany and Hassan Heikal, current and former board members respectively at Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes, were also arrested, a judicial source said.

All those accused in the case, which began in 2012, had been released on bail and barred from travel.

The court's next session is set for 20 October.

Gamal, a former banker, was widely viewed as being groomed for Egypt's top job until Mubarak was toppled in February 2011.

Older brother Alaa stayed out of politics but is accused of having amassed a fortune through his father's contacts.

After being arrested in 2011 for a number of alleged crimes, the two sons had several spells in provisional detention. They have been free for the past three years.

Alongside their father, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak were sentenced in May 2015 to three years in jail for diverting more than $11.5m in public money to maintain presidential palaces.

Their sentences were covered by time already served, the AFP news agency reported.

In March 2017, Hosni Mubarak was acquitted of charges of killing protesters, but the former president remains under investigation for alleged corruption.