Mubarak could be released; 25 police recruits killed in Sinai Mubarak remains behind bars only because of a third case, also relating to corruption, and his attorney said bond should be granted in that case by week's end - meaning that the elderly, feeble former leader could walk free for the first time in more than two years. "All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours," Mubarak's lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, told the Reuters news agency. He should be freed by the end of the week. The possibility comes amid a wave of violence related to a crackdown by Egypt's military-backed interim government on supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist who was voted into power after Mubarak's fall. More than 800 civilians and dozens of members of the security forces have been killed since Wednesday. While the decision to grant Mubarak bond was based on technical legal grounds, it could have significant political impact, said Hassan Abu Taleb, a political analyst at the al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies. "People will look at this as the biggest symbol of the former regime walking free," he said. This could change local dynamics, make things more tense for the new government. He said Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters would likely argue that the coup that ousted Morsi led to the release of Mubarak, paving the way for the return of his regime. The timing was sure to stir conspiracy theories about the influence of many of Mubarak's longtime cronies in the military bureaucracy. But the decision to allow bond was the latest in a string of victories for Mubarak's attorneys that predate the removal of Morsi. Adding to the legal turmoil, officials said Monday that the government is expanding its investigation of Morsi to include allegations that he politically repressed his opponents during his presidency. The allegations add to the government's legal rationale for detaining Morsi, who is being held on charges relating to a 2011 prison break that freed him and about 30 other Muslim Brotherhood members amid the chaos of the Arab Spring uprising. The escalating bloodshed in Egypt relating to the pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrations - on Sunday, 36 Morsi supporters were killed by police while they were being transferred to a prison north of Cairo - also appears to be contributing to a worsening of violence in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula. On Monday, unidentified gunmen opened fire on police cadets near the border post of Rafah, killing 25, according to Egyptian police and Interior Ministry officials. It was the worst attack in decades in a remote and lawless area, where Islamist militants have stepped up an armed campaign against security forces since Mubarak's ouster. The police recruits were returning from leave to their jobs near the border with Israel. Gunmen ordered them out of two minibuses and forced them to lie on the ground before shooting them, officials told the Associated Press. The police officers were dressed in civilian clothes, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The 36 people killed Sunday were detained at demonstrations in support of Morsi. Egyptian authorities said the prisoners died during an attempted jailbreak. The two incidents highlighted the instability that has spread through Egypt since the removal of Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president. Morsi was forced from power by the military six weeks ago after massive demonstrations against him. Since then, Islamist militants have escalated their attacks on the military and police forces stationed in the Sinai. Shootings of security forces have become a near-daily occurrence, even as political violence has engulfed other parts of the country and police and security forces have launched a lethal crackdown on pro-Morsi demonstrators. Signaling fears that violence could escalate, the Interior Ministry on Sunday outlawed "people's committees," saying they had been "exploited by others in conducting acts against the law." The pro-army vigilante groups have participated in efforts to quell the protests, armed with clubs, sticks and guns, in a sign of the widespread sense of fury at a president who won a historic democratic election last year but lost support as the economy crumbled and crime soared. Abigail Hauslohner, Lara El Gibaly and Amer Shakhatreh contributed to this report.