Cairo Criminal Court Sunday adjourned the trial of Gamal and Alaa Mubarak in the “Stock Market Manipulation” case to March 19.

The postponement came to begin hearing the pleadings in the case.

Gamal and Alaa Mubarak and six other businessmen, who are officials and former members of the board of directors of the National Bank face charges of illegal gains from selling El Watany Bank of Egypt, wasting public money, causing huge losses to the economy and destroying the country's banking system through manipulating the stock exchange.

The prosecution charged the defendants with obtaining EGP 493.6 million, which is the value of selling the bank, in violation of the provisions of the Capital Market Law and the Central Bank of Egypt.

The defendants agreed to control the shares of the bank by forming a controlling stake through the purchase of closed investment funds and selling them without disclosing their identity on the stock exchange, according to investigations.

They have also been accused of hiding their identity while speculating on the shares of the bank through cluster companies and closed investment funds they owned in Cyprus and some of the British Isles and transferring their profits abroad.

Source: MENA