Court orders release of Mubarak - security source

A security source has said a court has ordered the release of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

The court convened at the Cairo prison where Mr Mubarak is being held to review a petition from his lawyer demanding that he be freed.

The lawyer said the former president could be freed tomorrow.

Mr Mubarak is being retried on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters in 2011.

He was sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to prevent the killing of demonstrators. But a court accepted his appeal earlier this year and ordered a retrial.

Meanwhile, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore is attending an emergency meeting of European Union foreign ministers on the crisis in Egypt.

Mr Gilmore said he is "concerned" at media reports that four Irish citizens may be facing serious charges following their detention by Egyptian authorities.

However, he said he had no information confirming these reports.

Speaking as he arrived at the meeting in Brussels, Mr Gilmore said the Government's main interest was the welfare of the Halawa siblings in Cairo.

EU deciding on response to Egypt

EU foreign ministers will examine a set of proposals that could see aid programmes to Egypt frozen.

However, it is understood that economic sanctions are not being proposed.

Foreign ministers were summoned back from their holidays to take stock of the crisis in Egypt and to decide how best Europe should respond.

Europe, along with other international actors, pledged €5 billion in support of the government of the now deposed president Mohammed Mursi last November as part of the general response to the fragile Arab Spring.

Most of that funding was conditional on democratic reforms being implemented. The more progress Egypt made towards democracy, the more funding would flow from Brussels.

Very little of the €5bn was released. Any funds that have been paid out have gone directly to civil society, health or educational projects, and not to the regime.

That also applies to other funds worth €1bn that were part of the EU's normal policy towards its Mediterranean neighbours.

As such, foreign ministers are expected to take a calibrated approach, one that will not isolate the military regime completely and will leave open the prospect of aid in the future.

One EU diplomat said the best Europe could hope for in the short term was for the situation to be stabilised.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said: "It is about finding a formula for Europe to help Egypt get from where it is now to where a vast majority of the people say they want to be."

"That's going to be done by a political process and Egypt will need help to get there. And we are ready to help if they so wish," she said.

In July, Ms Ashton became the first foreign official to meet Mr Mursi after he was deposed by the army, taken into detention and placed under investigation on charges including murder.

The EU's subsequent mediation efforts, conducted jointly with the United States, collapsed earlier in August. Several days later, government forces killed hundreds of Mursi's supporters during a crackdown on protest camps.

She has told Egyptian authorities she is willing to go back to mediate.

The EU may not have much leverage over the Egyptian military but it can still talk to all sides, while all are suspicious of the US.

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