The main headlines in today’s papers highlighted a victory for the 25 January revolution–that Egypt's Illicit Gains Authority (IGA) is investigating the wealth of Gamal Mubarak, one of the two sons of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt’s flagship state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported that Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), issued a decree establishing a judicial committee to investigate accusations against the Mubaraks concerning illicit gains.
The paper added that Assem al-Gohary, head of the IGA, will head the judicial committee responsible for investigating the wealth of Mubarak, his son and Zakareya Azmi, the president's former chief of staff. The committee will also seek to obtain warrants to prevent Mubarak and his family from getting rid of their possessions, and to follow up on previous orders to freeze their assets.
Privately-owned newspaper Al-Shorouk said that Gamal Mubarak will be summoned next week to face accusations he illegally increased his wealth while serving as chairman of the National Democratic Party's Policies Secretariat.
The liberal Al-Wafd paper ran a headline that reads “There is no way except putting Mubarak on trial,” echoing popular calls for regime officials to face criminal prosecution.
The paper reported that political activists believe the only way to push the SCAF to bring Mubarak to trial is to organize more so-called "million-man marches."
Egypt's prosecutors have been investigating corruption allegations against Mubarak and regime officials.
Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, who on 28 February banned Mubarak from traveling and froze his local and offshore bank accounts, said on Monday that the toppled president has not been officially charged.
The paper quoted former Justice Minister Mahmoud Abu Allil as saying, "The revolution broke out in order to put Mubarak on trial, and postponing this step remains a policy that people can’t understand.”
Al-Shorouk also reported the ways which members of the Mubarak regime used their influence to get expensive properties at Marina resort on Egypt's Mediterranean Coast.
The paper said that for the past two decades, officials at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development illegally allocated 8640 villas to members of the former ruling NDP.
Haidy Rasekh, wife of Mubarak’s oldest son Alaa, got a huge tract of land and the ministry gave her two villas for free, Al-Shorouk reported. Former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq built a villa without a license, while former Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly got four villas for his daughters, according to the paper.
While the opposition and independent papers continued to lambast the Mubaraks, state-owned Al-Akhbar highlighted Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi's promise to work on improving realtions between Egypt and Iran. The paper quoted al-Arabi as saying that communications between Egypt and Iran aim to normalize relations between the two countries.
Egyptian-Iranian relations were severed following the Iranian Revolution of 1979, when Cairo gave refuge to the ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
“Egypt didn’t cut relations with Iran. It was Iran that cut them in 1979,” al-Arabi said.
State-owned daily Rose al-Youssef tackled the fierce debate over the rise of Salafis and their threats to various social groups that don’t share their strict views on Islam. The paper highlighted recent accusations that Salafis are targeting mosques that house tombs, which they consider un-Islamic and heretical.
The paper quoted Ali Abul Azayem, the head sheikh of the popular Azmiya Sufi order, as saying attacking those shrines is a crime against society and a crime against Islam.
Abul Azayem also said he had proposed a meeting with Salafis at Al-Azhar in 2006, but they rejected the proposed venue and also refused to hold a meeting on their own premises.
Egypt's papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhorriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Arab Nasserist party
Youm7: Weekly, privately owned
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
