An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned a three-year prison sentence against ousted president Hosni Mubarak on corruption charges and ordered a retrial

An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned a three-year prison sentence against ousted president Hosni Mubarak on corruption charges and ordered a retrial.

A lower court had handed down the jail term in May last year after convicting him of embezzling more than 100 million Egyptian pounds (about $14 million) earmarked for the maintenance of presidential palaces.

It had also handed down four-year jail sentences against the toppled leader's sons, Alaa and Gamal.

The three-year prison term is the only current prison sentence levied against Mubarak.

Mubarak, currently detained in a military hospital, will not be released without a decision by the prosecution or the court that will retry him, the official MENA news agency quoted a security official as saying.

But defense lawyer Farid al-Deeb told AFP that his client ought to go free as he "has already served" three years in detention, including the time he spent in custody awaiting trial.