An Egyptian court has sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons to jail for corruption.

Mubarak was sentenced to three years in prison and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, received four-year sentences for embezzling LE125 million ($17.9 million) of funds earmarked for the renovation of presidential palaces.

The three were also fined LE125 million ($17.6 million) and ordered to reimburse LE21.19 million ($2.9 million) to the state treasury.

Four other defendants were acquitted in the case.

Mubarak and his two sons – who both face a separate corruption case – also face trials for involvement in the killing of protesters during the January 2011 uprising. 

The ailing former president could serve his sentence in hospital if doctors advise that his health does not permit his transfer to prison, and if prosecutors approve, a judicial source told Ahram Online.

Mubarak, 86, was released from jail in August but has been kept under house arrest in a military hospital in Maadi, a Cairo suburb, because he had spent the maximum amount of time in pretrial detention.

Since he was taken into custody in early 2011, Mubarak has spent much of his detention in hospitals due to his fragile health.

Mubarak settled a separate corruption case by returning gifts he had received from state-run institutions.

In June 2012, Mubarak and his interior minister Habib El-Adly were sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring in the killing of protesters. The sentence was overturned on appeal in January 2013 and a retrial was ordered on account of "procedural failings."