Cairo Criminal Court is considering a request from the Public Prosecution to seize money and gifts that were given by members of the leadership at Al-Ahram newspaper to a number of figures from former President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Investigations by the Supreme Public Funds Prosecution said that the value of the gifts given to former regime officials, paid for from the newspaper's budget, exceeded LE100 million from 1984 to 2011, and have characterized the gifts as seizing of public funds and intentional damage to institutional funds.
Former Al-Ahram CEOs Ibrahim Nafie, Morsy Atallah, Abdel Moneim Saeed and Salah al-Ghamry are named in the request, as well as former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, former presidential office head Zakaria Azmi, former Shura Council head Safwat al-Sherif, former People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mufid Shehab.
The gifts given by Al-Ahram leadership included valuable watches, gold pens, gold pounds, ties, diamonds, jewelry, leather bags for men and women and leather belts.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm