Deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak is expecting to be freed from jail after being cleared of corruption charges, his lawyer claims.

Hosni Mubarak was toppled from power in February 2011 following an uprising and has been held by authorities since.

He has made numerous appearances at Cairo’s courthouse since on charges relating to the death of protesters during the revolution and of corruption.

However, according to his lawyer Fareed El Deeb, judicial authorities ordered that 85-year-old Mubarak should be released in one of the remaining corruption charges against him.

He said that the only legal grounds for the former leader’s detention would be another corruption case, which is expected to be concluded later this week.

He said: “All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours. He should be freed by the end of the week.”

Mubarak still faces charges of complicity in the murder of protesters during the 2011 revolution. His trial has been adjourned until August 25.

The development came after Egyptian authorities disclosed that suspected militants had attacked two police minibuses with rocket-propelled grenades, killing 24 officers in Sinai.

The ambush, condemned by Egypt’s interior ministry as the work of “armed terrorist groups”, took place as the two vehicles were driving through a village near the border town of Rafah in the volatile Sinai Peninsula.

Two officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said that three officers had also been injured.

Sinai has been witnessing near daily attacks by suspected militants since the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted on July 3.

It is estimated nearly 50 security officials have been killed in the region since then, and the army claims to have killed nearly 70 “terrorists” in the same time.

In response to the attack Egypt closed the Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

The latest attack follows the suppression of Mr Morsi’s supporters in Cairo in scenes of bloodshed over the last five days, which have left at least 750 people dead.

The military, which assumed control of the country from Mr Morsi, has been rounding up the former president’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters and there have been more than 1,000 arrests.

The Brotherhood has vowed to continue its demonstrations.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that the continued unrest across the Middle East represented one of the most significant events of the 21st century so far.

He told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme that events in Egypt and surrounding countries could echo for decades and that the international community should expect significant “setbacks”.

European Union ambassadors are discussing the crisis in Egypt amid international alarm.

Meanwhile, the family of four Irish siblings caught up in violence have said their relatives are being held by Egyptian authorities.

Omaima Halawa, 20, her two sisters Fatima, 22, Somaia, 27, and their younger brother Ibrihim, 17, were among hundreds of people cleared out of the al Fath mosque when security forces stormed the building on Saturday.

They were forced to seek sanctuary in the mosque on Friday after violent clashes between supporters of Mr Morsi and the security forces killed more than 80 people.

Speaking from the family home in Dublin, their sister Nasaybi Halawa said that her 17-year-old brother could have been beaten in the mosque.

Miss Halawa said: “The person I’m speaking to told me they were beating men to hell. She doesn’t know how my brother looks but she told me ‘I can guarantee for you, all the men were beaten there. They didn’t exclude anyone from hitting them’.”

However, Sky sources understand that the four have been visited in Tora Prison by a Turkish diplomat who reported they were “all well”.

Irish diplomats have said they are due to be brought to the prosecutor’s office at 2pm on Monday and they were “confident” they would be released.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters also fled to the building in the Ramses area of Cairo, shoving furniture against the doors to stop police from breaking their way in.

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