The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not requested that the assets of ousted president Hosni Mubarak nor any of his family members be frozen in European Union (EU) states, an EU source revealed.
On Wednesday, the ministry announced it had referred requests to freeze the assets of several former officials to the country's embassies in European states, as well as other western and Arab states.
The crackdown on ex-officials and former ministers came after 18 days of pro-democracy protests led to Mubarak's resignation after 30 years in power.
The EU source, who asked to remain anonymous, said the list includes Ahmed Ezz, the resigned organization secretary of the previously-ruling National Democratic Party; Rachid Mohamed Rachid, former trade minister; Ahmed al-Maghraby, former housing minister; Habib al-Adly, former interior minister; and Zuheir Garana, former tourism minister.
Meanwhile, an executive at Washington's property tax services, Jill McClain, highlighted the difficulty of detecting assets and properties belonging to Mubarak and his family. She said it would be a lengthy process because there is no clear evidence regarding the location of the properties that were mentioned in recent reports from the US and the UK.
A banking official, who also asked to remain anonymous, said that only assets in US dollars in American banks can be tracked, should Egypt authorities ask for information on specific accounts. The official said that if these accounts were turned into euros, the process would be further complicated.
