Dubai: Egypt's Chief Prosecutor of Appeals will begin investigations today into the wealth of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, his wife Suzan and two sons Ala'a and Jamal.
The investigation follows a complaint filed against the former president by the Freedoms Committee of the Egyptian Bar Association based on what it called the "unjustified swelling of Mubarak's and his family's wealth".
Mohammad Al Dimmati, head of the committee, told Gulf News he is seeking a fair investigation into reports about the wealth of theformer president and his family.
He said his complaint, which was filed on Thursday morning, received a response on Saturday, when General Public Prosecutor Abdul Majeed Al Mahmoud told him of the decision to investigate the case.
Hearing of the complaint will start at 10am Cairo time and is expected to last two hours.
"As many as 30 lawyers, all members of the Freedoms Association, have helped collect the documents that will help to build the case against Mubarak and his family," Al Dimmati said in a telephone interview.
Al Dimmati will present the documents to the public prosecutor investigating the case. "Based on the documents I have, I am sure that the public prosecutor's office will take swift action to issue an arrest warrant against all involved in the case," he said.
Swift action
Ashour Al Faraj, Chief Prosecutor of Appeals, will take swift action to stop Mubarak and his family from leaving Egypt if they are still in the country, Al Dimmati said.
"Mubarak might have succeeded in transferring his wealth in the past 18 days. This will be left to the judicial system to investigate in cooperation with the central bank and the international community," he said.
Mohammad Al Hashim, head of the Egyptian Observation Centre for Justice and Law, told Gulf News that the investigation has become necessary following local and international news reports about the case.
"We have no official explanation from the ousted president nor has he denied the reports while in power. Egyptians need to see an independent body investigating the claims," he said.
"Whether the wealth was $70 billion (Dh257 billion) or less, Egyptians want to know why such wealth was accumulated by the president and his family while ordinary Egyptians were in such a bad shape financially," Al Hashim said.
Egyptian lawyers who filed the case are not saying that the reports of Mubarak's wealth are credible, nor are they saying otherwise, Al Hashim said.
"What we are sure of at this stage is that many of those involved in stealing public money were very close to the sons of the president and in some cases we were not sure if corrupt people were acting on behalf of the family.
"In cases settled by the court under Mubarak's regime, lawyers were denied access to information about the owners of some companies involved in shipping and public transportation. This indicates that the Mubarak government did not like to reveal the genuine investors in these companies," he said.
He said Egyptians want a civil and fair court to hear the case and are ready to accept a fair ruling.
"We don't want to criminalise our ex-president. But he must be obliged to pay back the money he or any of his family members haves taken from the people of Egypt. This is not revenge — simply because Egyptians don't consider revenge as a moral ethic," Al Hashim said.
"We believe that the rights of the people and the rights of the nation must be protected."
- $70b: estimated wealth of ex-President Mubarak
- 30: lawyers collaborated in collecting evidence
Economy to suffer
Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmad Shafik said the country's economy, which he described as "solid", may be hurt by the continued instability.
Security should be the government's main priority, he said at a press conference in Cairo yesterday. Egypt's ministries continue to carry out their duties without ministers, Shafik said. Some logistics remain a challenge, he added.
