Judicial sources have said that the public prosecutor is wrapping up investigations of former President Hosni Mubarak related to potential charges of threatening national security, but did not specify what those charges are.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said that aside from the security allegations, Mubarak is being interrogated about alleged schemes for selling Egypt's debts as well as certain arms deals.
A source at the Finance Ministry said the public prosecutor requested information about the size of the foreign debt and ways in which it could be disposed.
The public prosecutor received reports, according to the same anonymous source, about the former president and his son Gamal Mubarak allegedly commissioning foreign businessmen to buy Egypt’s debts for one tenth of their real value, which some foreign countries purportedly agreed to because they were going through a financial crisis. Then the businessmen would threaten to file a lawsuit in international courts to claim the full value of the debts from Egypt. At this point, Mubarak would allegedly convince officials in Egypt to agree on paying half the amount up front and the other half at a later time, then he would split the total with the businessmen, while appearing to have averted a potential debt crisis.
Mubarak has categorically denied these allegations during interrogations, according to the ministry source, saying that his son was working for Bank of America when he learned that someone in a foreign country had bought Egypt’s debt for 50 percent less than the value and was going to file a lawsuit to claim the rest. When Gamal told his father, Mubarak asked him to brief Prime Minister Atef Sidky, and a law regulating the purchase of the foreign debts was issued to prevent such incidents, the Finance Ministry source claims.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
