The Public Funds Prosecution accepted an offer on Sunday from the family of ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s family to pay LE20 million in return for gifts from state media figures so that the charges could be dropped.
The prosecution had decided to hold Mubarak for 15 days pending investigation of millions of pounds worth of gifts that the chairmen of national press institutions allegedly gave Mubarak.
The former president was questioned while in Maadi Military Hospital on the gifts he received during the period from 2006 to 2011.
Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah decided last Saturday to seize money and gifts that were given by members of the leadership at Al-Ahram newspaper to 26 figures from former President Hosni Mubarak's regime. They were also banned from leaving the country.
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 characterized the gifts a seizure of public funds and an intentional damage to the institutions’ funds.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
