Ten other former high-ranking oil and gas officials also reportedly received shorter jail sentences, according to Reuters.

Head of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, canceled its natural gas agreement with Israel in April arguing that it had stopped paying its bills.

The 2005 Egypt-Israel gas deal had always been viewed by many Egyptians with great suspicion while critics point out Israel got gas at below market prices making the deal a rip-off for Egypt.

The agreement, which supplied Israel with 40% of its natural gas, caused the country to lose more than US$714 million worth of income, according to AFP. 

After the January 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak from the presidency, the deal came under attack from revolutionary groups and critics who said the deal was one of the former president’s worst crimes. The pipeline was bombed by unknown 14 times causing Egypt to halt the deal a month later.

Israel claims it is paying a fair price for the gas. Israeli officials believe that immediate exploitation of two major natural gas fields off the country’s northern coast could compensate for the loss of Egyptian gas. Israel has already moved to begin exploiting the fields, striking a deal with Cyprus.

Thursday’s sentencing is the latest in a series of cases against Mubarak-era officials, AFP reports, as  former president has been sentenced to life in prison over the killing of some 850 protesters.

The ousted 84-year-old former leader is said to have had a stroke and has been revived and is on an artificial respirator after he suffered stroke. He was then moved to an army hospital Maadi, where he is believed to be in a coma and on life support, according to Egyptian military sources.

The plan to move Mubarak to Maadi Military Hospital has been underway for a few days as Mubarak’s legal team has been pressing to have him moved to a better-equipped hospital since his arrival at Tora Prison Hospital on 2 June, after having been sentence to life imprisonment for  the crime of killing some 850 protesters during last year’s 18-day uprising, according to Reuters.

Mubarak has to have been in bad health by officials for the past year. He was wheeled in to court during his trial on a hospital stretcher.

Doctors treated him with a defibrillator twice on June 11, according to a prison hospital source. 

He has suffered from acute depression since his transfer, interior ministry officials said.
, according to Al Jazeera.

Mubarak’s wife Suzanne and his two daughters-in-law were granted special permission to visit him following rumors that he had died in prison.

Meanwhile, renewed tension in Egypt has erupted, with both candidates claiming victory in the poll.

 The Muslim Brotherhood said their candidate Mohammed Mursi had won the run-off vote in the early hours of Monday morning, but Mursi’s rival Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister, has also claimed a victory, with his campaign accusing the Brotherhood of fraud. All figures released until now are unofficial. The final tally will be announced on Thursday.

Last weekend, Egypt held the second round of its presidential election, a key element of the transition to greater democracy that began in January 2011 when a popular uprising overthrew the long-standing regime of Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian electoral authorities are scheduled to announce the official results of the run-off poll on Thursday. The run-off pitted Mohammed Mursi, representing the Muslim Brotherhood, against ex-prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.

“The Secretary-General continues to follow events in Egypt closely,” the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, told the Security Council, as he briefed the 15-member body on the latest developments in the Middle East. “He looks forward to the early handover of full authority to a civilian government.”

Ban “underscores his concern that the country’s transition should meet the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people and of the international community for the establishment of strong, representative, democratic institutions and for the popular will to be respected – both in the elections and in the drafting of a new Constitution,” Fernandez-Taranco added.

In addition to Egypt, the popular uprisings that began last year resulted in the toppling of long-standing regimes in Tunisia, Libya and Yemen, and led to the violence and humanitarian suffering that continues in Syria.

“He has been in and out of consciousness and has been refusing food,” the source said.

Mubarak was sent to prison on June 2 after being sentenced to life in prison for killing some 850 hundred protesters during the revolution that ousted him last year.

Since then, his health has been at risk, according to Egyptian media reports, with rumors of his death spreading rapidly.

Authorities have granted his wife, former first lady Suzanne Mubarak, and the couple’s two daughters-in-law special permission to visit him in Cairo’s Torah prison on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.

On Wednesday, prison sources said that Mubarak’s health is “severely deteriorating.” Sources inside Cairo’s Tora said that Mubarak collapsed following visits on Monday by his wife Suzanne, and his sons Alaa and Gamal, according to Al Arabiya.

The sons are being held at the same prison awaiting trial on insider trading charges, after they and their father were acquitted on June 2 of corruption charges.

Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne,  who visited him on Sunday, according to the officials, demanded that he be transferred to a better-equipped hospital. The officials said such a transfer was likely unless Mubarak’s health improves.

However, according to a Reuters report confirmed the information in Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan through a source who works at the hospital and requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, that Mubarak has been living a comfortable life in the hospital, free to see relatives, walk in the garden and exercise.

Also given a life term on Saturday was Mubarak’s former interior minister Habib al-Adly, while six former police commanders were acquitted, according to Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, corruption charges against Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, were dropped where each of his sons were facing sentences up to three years in prison, according to Human Rights Watch.

Hosni Mubarak, the first former Arab leader to be tried by his own people since the wave of political and social unrest began in the Arab World, faces a verdict on Saturday in his trial for complicity in killing of protesters during the 18-day revolt that ousted him.

Egypt has been ruled by the military since Mubarak was forced to resign last year and has vowed to hand power by July 1.

The ousted president, who was wearing a training suit with a beige top, black trousers and a pair of sunglasses, lying on a stretcher was wheeled into the Police Academy this morning where the trial took  place, state-run Al Ahram reported.

However, according to a Reuters report confirmed the information in Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan through a source who works at the hospital and requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, that Mubarak is living a comfortable life in the hospital, free to see relatives, walk in the garden and exercise. Security officials said 5000 policemen and 2000 soldiers secured Saturday’s session and Mubarak’s transport from a military hospital where he was detained. Analysts say the verdict may have an impact on a presidential election run off on June 16-17 between the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi and Mubarak’s prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, who has vowed he will not bring back the old regime.

The Muslim Brotherhood said its candidate Mohammed Mursi leaded this week’s polls and would compete in next month’s second round on June 16 and 17 against Ahmed Shafiq, according to an unofficial Brotherhood tally of the vote count. Official results are due out on Tuesday.

According to political campaigns and semi-official results released by media, the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi and former prime minister showed that Islamist Mursi got 24.9% of the votes, Shafiq got 24.5%, Al Arabiya reported.

The Muslim Brotherhood has stated that the “nation is in danger” if  Shafiq wins the the presidential vote
. “Morsi’s campaign calls upon all stakeholders in Egypt to join hands and do their best endeavors to save their revolution, along with the homeland and the people from a re-production of the old regime with all its repression, despotism and tyranny,” according to a statement by Muslim Brotherhood’s official website. 

The military council  has pledged to hand power to a new president by July 1

Official results are not to be announced before Tuesday,when the presidential election commission has promised to release the final tallies, but a senior judge involved in supervising the vote said Mursi and Shafiq were in the lead, based on figures from 90 percent of polling stations, according to Reuters.

A member of Shafiq’s campaign also said Mursi and Shafiq were in the lead, but that counting was not complete.

The election has divided Egyptians between those who oppose a  return to the Mubarak era and those who fear an Islamist domination of ruling institutions.

“The Carter Center has received accreditation as one of the organizations that will witness the election by Egypt’s Supreme Presidential Election Commission,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, according to AFP.

She said the 22 observers from 14 countries will “join in total an 80-person witness delegation covering 35 countries and they will be there for several days before the election and through the election,” Nuland told reporters.

The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter. In partnership with Emory University, The Carter Center works to advance human rights.The Carter Center has been a pioneer of election observation, monitoring more than 80 elections in Africa, Latin America, and Asia since 1989 and forging many of the techniques now common to the field.

Polls indicate that Amr Mussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League chief, and Islamist candidate Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh are the leading contenders in the May 23-24 elections, according to Egypt Independent News. 

Eleven other candidates are competing in the presidential election which should mark the end of a turbulent military-led transitional period since president Hosni Mubarak’s was ousted in February 2011.

Results of the voting for expatriates are expected to be announced on Friday, the Supreme Presidential Election Commission (SPEC) 
announced, with a run-off voting set to take place between June 3 and 9, if necessary. Voting inside Egypt will take place on May 23-24.

According to Egyptian media, 57,000 Egyptians have already voted. Turnout has been particularly high in Saudi Arabia, home of nearly half of the 587,000 registered voters abroad.

With jubilance and optimism for the future of their country, Egyptians in Greece gathered under the rain on Wednesday in Syntagma Square to do three things: commemorate their revolution, memorialize the people who died and demonstrate against the country’s ruling generals.

“Down with military rule” and “Revolution until victory” chanted the crowd.

Since February 11 last year when Mubarak was driven out the military council has assumed power and is led by the man who was Mubarak’s defense minister for two decades, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. The army has promised to relinquish power to an elected civilian government. In this time there have been a growing number of military trials, new anti-protest laws and protesters have been detained. In response, protests have continued in Tahrir Square.

“Definitely, the revolution has not achieved its goal. The revolution continues until it realizes its goal; that’s when we will really celebrate,” says Egyptian and president of the Muslim Association of Greece Naim EL Ghandour.

The words “freedom”, “Democracy” and “revolution” punctuated all talks in Syntagma Square. There was a sense of bewilderment that went along with the words, but most of all joy.

The Anthem of the Egyptian Revolution “Ya Beladi” meaning “My country” played over the loud speakers and people started singing some with tears in their eyes while others waving their flags and chanting “My country”. Suddenly, everything went dark and hundreds of candles lit to remind the world of the souls that have been lost.

“A great victory has been achieved. A victory of dignity. The victory is not only ours but of all oppressed people around the world. It is time to celebrate. Long live the Egyptian revolution” says Egyptian Taghrid in an interview with Postnews.

But underneath the jubilation there seems to be a sense of responsibility. What will become of Tahrir square where thousands of people lost their lives in clashes with security forces before Mubarak stepped down? With elections underway, how does the future of the Egyptian people look and what are the challenges that lie ahead?

The events in Tahrir Square indubitably mark the beginning of a new era for Egypt. But while the future holds many big questions for the Egyptians, the revolution continues.