Egypt’s public prosecutor summoned ousted president Hosni Mubarak as part of investigations into the killing of protesters and embezzlement of public funds, the prosecutor said on Sunday. The prosecutor has also detained former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif for 15 days.
Mubarak’s sons Gamal and Alaa were also summoned in the embezzlement probe, the prosecutor said in a statement, adding that comments by Mubarak on Sunday in which he denied accusations of corruption would not affect the investigations.
Breaking a two-month silence, Mubarak said the allegations against his family were unfounded and he had the right to defend his reputation.
In his first public comments since being ousted from power on Feb 11, Mubarak said information sent to the public prosecutor would show he owns no financial assets or real estate abroad. Details of bank accounts owned by his sons Alaa and Gamal would disprove any suspicions of profiteering and illegal gains.
At the same time the prosecutor said he had sequestered land belonging to Saudi billionaire
Prince AlWaleed bin Talal at Toshka in the south of the country. The land is part of a desert reclamation project using water pumped from the reservoir behind Egypt’s Aswan High Dam and delivered by canal.
“I will uphold all my legal rights to defend my reputation as well as that of my family both at home and abroad,” Mubarak said in a recorded statement carried by Al Arabiya TV.
“I have been, and still am, pained by what I and my family are facing from fraudulent campaigns and unfounded allegations that seek to harm my reputation, my integrity and my military and political record.”
He said he only had assets and bank accounts in one Egyptian bank, as he had previously disclosed.
Reformers who drove the mass street protests that ousted the autocratic leader of three decades have demanded tougher steps to recover assets they say he and others took from the state.
Since he left office, Mubarak, 82, and his family have stayed in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh and Egyptian officials have denied reports and rumours that he is very ill.
Mubarak said “lies” carried by local and foreign media that he and his family own extensive real estate holdings abroad would be disproved. He complained he has been the victim of a smear campaign.
He said that both he and his family were the victims of “unjust campaigns and false claims that seek to ruin my reputation and challenge my integrity and my... military and political history.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2011.
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