The Public Funds Prosecution has opened investigations into new allegations that members of the former Mubarak regime received bribes from a prominent businessman.
Judicial sources, who asked not to be named, said Thursday that former Information Minister Anas al-Fiqqi, former People’s Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour, his son Tarek Fathi Sorour, the heirs to former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif’s now-deceased wife, and four wives of Mubarak regime figures and their sons have been implicated in the investigation.
Hesham Talaat Mostafa, the businessman who allegedly provided the bribes currently in custody, reportedly gave the accused apartments he owned in the San Stefano Grand Plaza in Alexandria, the sources said.
The investigations revealed that Mostafa granted the defendants apartments at below-market prices in return for them helping his business through legislation in the People’s Assembly, Shura Council and Information Ministry. All the defendants registered the apartments under the names of other family members, except for Fiqqi, the sources said.
The Public Funds Prosecution’s investigations confirmed that Mostafa granted the elder Sorour an apartment registered under his son’s name right after the former speaker ignored an MP’s information request into the allegation that Mostafa had filled part of the Nile River to build a hotel.
Mostafa is also accused of granting Nazif another apartment registered under the name of his now-deceased wife as a bribe. According to the investigations, Mostafa granted Nazif the apartment so the prime minister could pass his business through the cabinet and give him other advantages.
Mostafa granted Fiqqi an apartment in return for the information minister preventing state TV broadcasters from criticizing the magnate, the sources added, noting that Mostafa had also asked Fiqqi to pressure presenters criticizing him on satellite channels.
During interrogations, Mostafa’s defense team denied the charges and assured that all his contracts were correct and that the prices paid for the apartments were the same as those laid out in the contracts, according to the sources. The defendants confessed to having the apartments but denied receiving them as bribes, the sources added of the investigations’ findings.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
