On Sunday, Cairo prosecution office started looking into accusations made by a number of public figures, including writer and political researcher Ammar Ali Hassan, prominent economist Abdel Khaleq Farouk, and the poet and political activist Abdel Rahman Yousif.

"The prosecution will summon Farouk on Monday on the accusations and this is a sign that they are taking our complaint seriously," Hassan told Ahram Online.

"These are the charges that Mubarak and his men should have been facing from day one of the revolution. People did not revolt against him because he killed protesters, they revolted because he destroyed their lives and their future," he added.

The complaint, filed in May,  accuses Mubarak and many of the figures of his regime, including Mubarak's vice president, Omar Sulieman, his last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, who is now running for the presidency, and Kamal El-Ganzouri, Egypt's current prime minister.

The treason and disloyalty accusations are based on two allegations: that Mubarak and his men were not loyal to the republican system as they tried to pave the way for his son, Gamal, to be Mubarak's  successor; secondly, that they disrespected the constitution and circumvented the will of the nation, enforcing constitutional amendments without a popular referendum in 2005 and after.

The fact that the prosecution decided to investigate the complaint does not automatically mean that Mubarak and associates will face trial on the charges.