The Public Funds Prosecution agreed Wednesday that ousted President Hosni Mubarak should return about LE20 million he had received from the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper in the form of gifts.
The funds are to be deducted from the frozen money of his son Alaa.
Mostafa al-Husseiny of the Public Funds Prosecution said Mubarak’s interior minister, Habib al-Adly, has not filed for reconciliation to return gifts given to him.
Prosecution spokesperson Hassan Yassin said the defendants in the case returned LE30 million for the period between 2006 and 2011, and pledged to return more gifts they would have received before that period.
Public Prosecutor Talaat Abdallah lifted travel bans on 10 out of 26 defendants for returning their gifts, including former parliamentary Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour, former Health Minister Hatem al-Gabaly, former Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Minister Moufid Shehab and former Parliamentary Secretary General Sami Mahran.
Abdallah also lifted bans for Sorour’s former office manager, Yousry al-Sheikh; ex-Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif’s former secretary, Mohamed Samy Saad; former Mubarak secretary Abul Qasim Rashwan; Al-Ahram columnist Abdallah Kamal; former Dar al-Tahrir chairperson Ahmed Hashim; and Abu Taleb Mahmoud Abu Taleb, former secretary in the prime minister’s office.
The public funds prosecutor agreed Monday to drop charges against former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif in exchange for repayment of funds he illegally received in the form of gifts from Al-Ahram.
Nazif received gifts worth LE1.75 million, which he repaid Tuesday, sources said.
Abdallah decided last week to seize money and gifts given by Al-Ahram to 26 figures from the Mubarak regime. These figures have also been banned from leaving the country.
From 1984 to 2011, Al-Ahram paid off former regime officials with gifts worth more than LE100 million, including gold watches and pens, diamonds and jewelry.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
