Since 2002, revenue from overseas exhibitions of rare artifacts has gone to the family of toppled President Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian antiquities official alleged Tuesday.
Abdel Rahman al-Aidy, head of the Central Department for the Artifacts of Central Egypt, said during a press conference on Tuesday that the attorney general had yet to take action on 21 reports Aidy filed calling for an investigation into well-known former Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass and his aides.
He said he had prepared a list of the "five chief corrupt figures at the Supreme Council of Antiquities," and added that he will file a report against them this week.
Meanwhile, Hawass has denied the accusation, saying a King Tut exhibition in the US generated US$70 million for Egypt, funds he said were used to finance the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum.
He said the attorney general has scrapped all the reports that Aidy filed as there is no evidence to support the accusations.
Hawass further said that when he assumed responsibility for the Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2002, it did not have much money. Funds were invested in more than 70 projects to protect monuments and in the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
