Assem al-Gohary, assistant justice minster for illicit gains affairs, ordered on Thursday the detention of former President Hosni Mubarak for a further 15 days as investigations into his financial dealings continue.
Khalid Salim, head of the investigative unit of the Illicit Gains Authority (IGA), conducted the first investigative session with Mubarak at Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital.
The investigator confronted Mubarak with the findings of the Administrative Oversight Agency and the Public Funds Investigative Unit, according to which Mubarak amassed a fortune that was not commensurate with his legal sources of income.
The investigator also asked Mubarak about his financial disclosure statement, which demonstrates that Mubarak, his sons, and his wife, own a large number of palaces and villas. The former president was further questioned about his involvement in the deal to export gas to Israel, and his relationship with businessman Hussein Salem who fled Egypt at the start of the 25 January revolution.
Mubarak failed to explain his sons’ properties after having presented the investigator with a full account of them, both inside and outside of Egypt.
The investigator decided to postpone the questioning of Suzanne Mubarak, the former president’s wife until Friday. Suzanne will be confronted with the findings of the Administrative Oversight Agency and the Public Funds Investigative Unit, which document her inflated fortune.
She will also be asked about the Library of Alexandria bank accounts, containing a total of US$147 million, which she was authorised to make deposits in and withdraw funds from.
Finally, she will be asked about her tampering with and profiting from the accounts of the Heliopolis Development Organization and the Mohammed Alaa Mubarak Charitable Organization.
Notably, this is the first time that Hosni Mubarak has been questioned regarding his inflated fortune. The IGA had previously conducted investigations with his son Gamal, Gama's wife Khadija al-Gamal, and Alaa Mubarak’s wife Heidi Rasikh. Investigations into Alaa Mubarak have been postponed.
The Egyptian penal code mandates that crimes pertaining to illegal gains are punishable by 3 to 15 years of imprisonment. The law also requires that those convicted should return the illegally acquired funds.
Mubarak and his two sons face a number of charges, including killing protesters and deliberately facilitating the acquisition of public funds. While the potential sentences for the financial crimes are mostly prison terms, the penalty for killing protesters could be death, according to legal experts.
