Mubarak files lawsuit to unfreeze $3.36 million in assets

Egypt's longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in the 25 January revolution in 2011, filed a lawsuit on Thursday to unfreeze 61 million Egyptian Pounds ($3.36 million) of his assets.

Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal filed the suit against the justice minister and the general prosecution, alleging that the continued freeze on their assets was in "defiance of the law".

A court has set 23 March to discuss the lawsuit, state-run al-Ahram news website reported on Thursday.

Named as one of the defendants, Egypt's Central Clearing, Depository and Registry Company has been the legal custodian of Mubarak and his family's shares in the Egyptian stock market since the prosecutor-general ordered the asset freeze in February 2011.

The lawsuit comes only days after the general prosecutor ordered Mubarak's release following his acquittal earlier this month of killing protesters during the 25 January revolution.

The 88-year-old had spent the majority of his sentence in a military hospital in the upscale district of Maadi in Cairo.

Since his ouster in 2011, Mubarak stood trial in a number of criminal cases on various charges, but he only received one final conviction on charges of corruption.

He is still banned from travel pending investigations by the Illicit Gains Authority into the increase in his personal wealth since the 2011 revolution, according to his lawyer Farid al-Deeb.

Hundreds of protesters were killed in clashes with police and Mubarak supporters during the 18-day uprising in 2011, part of the Arab Spring protests that swept the region.

Led by then defence minister and current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a military coup overthrew Mubarak’s freely elected successor, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.