All major papers headline with the long-awaited news that Egypt’s Attorney General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud has announced his official request to freeze the assets of former President Hosni Mubarak, his wife Suzanne Thabet, his sons Alaa and Gamal, and their wives.
Independent Al-Dostour and Al-Wafd add that Switzerland have announced findings in the “tens of millions of Francs” since they decided to freeze possible assets of his on 11 February.
State-run Al-Ahram reports that the Unlawful Profiteering Committee has also taken additional steps against others accused of high-level corruption. State-run Al-Gomhorriya names former General Secretary of the NDP Safwat al-Sherif as one of those whose assets were frozen in Switzerland.
The escalating situation in Libya brought itself to the fore yesterday with President Muammar Qadhafi’s forces killing 400 protesters with the help of African mercenaries, according to al-Ahram. Inside the paper reports on Saif al-Islam Qadhafi’s maniacal claim that his father's regime will fight the protesters “to the last man.” Reports of ordered air raids and anti aircraft missiles to be used on the protesters had the world gripped in horror at the Libyan despot's retaliatory actions.
Civilians have reportedly taken over a few Libyan cities and are moving toward the capital. Independent Al-Shorouk breaks the news that 750,000 Egyptians are stranded in Beni-Ghazi with no evacuation plan or safety information. Amid mass resignations of Libyan representatives world-wide, the Arab League Libyan representative reportedly said, as quoted by Al-Shorouk, that “Qadhafi is committing genocide.” The paper describes Qadhafi as “the oldest president on earth…collapsing,” while Al-Wafd uses the word “swaying.” Al-Shorouk also posts a news item claiming ten Egyptians were killed in Tobrouk, Libya. The claim was denied by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
Reports also came out yesterday regarding the orchestrated theft of land during the reign of former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. Al-Dostour claims that around LE51 billion pounds was wasted on agricultural land when in 2009 a decision was passed to sell thousands of acres at the 2006 valuation, which was only around 5 percent of its actual value in 2009.
Al-Dostour has opened a file for “those who stole public land under direct orders.” The file includes land “stolen” in other governorates, including 22 million meters square sold to a business man for a mere LE5 per meter.
Much of the land, most of which was located on the Cairo-Alexandria road, was earmarked for agricultural use but was instead used to create desert resorts and residential areas. Al-Ahram and Al-Gomhorriya report that the price per meter was LE3000, while the Sulaymaneya land, which was worth a mere 47 piastres a few years ago, was sold at around LE2000 per meter.
Page three in Al-Ahram posts a lists of NDP figures and their families who have taken land generally seen as undervalued, costing the country around LE3 billion.
Al-Shorouq reports that there is widespread disagreement about the legality of the cabinet chosen yesterday by Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq. The cabinet includes Vice Prime Minister Yahia al-Gamal, and ministers from different political parties. The cabinet still contains majority NDP members. The paper notes that the call for another million-man protest this Friday will focus primarily on a demand for the removal of Ahmed Shafiq’s government.
Meanwhile Al-Wafd refers to the called-for million-man protest today as being independent of the revolution. The paper quotes the 25 January revolution’s so-called Board of Trustees accusing the NDP of calling for today’s protest in order to elevate tension between the people and the military.
The Muslim Brotherhood, previously seen as Egypt’s largest opposition group, has, for the first time, formed a political party called “Freedom and Justice.” Al-Gomhorriya writes that the group's Supreme Leader said that membership in the group’s party will be open to all Egyptians, even if they are not members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Most papers report also on the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces’s decision to enforce a constitutional amendment setting a presidential term limit of two. Al-Shorouq reports that the Prosecutor Hatem Bagato of the Constitutional Amendment Committee stated that the committee has also decided to reduce presidential terms to less than six years.
Egypt's papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhorriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run, close to the National Democratic Party's Policies Secretariat
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Arab Nasserist party
Youm7: Weekly, privately owned
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
