Suzanne Mubarak returns Cairo villa, up to $3.4 million; doctor says former first lady too sick for transfer to prison.
By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFFSuzanne Mubarak_311(photo credit: Reuters)
CAIRO - The wife of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak relinquished some of her assets to the state on Monday, days after anti-corruption authorities ordered her detention.An anti-corruption agency ordered on Friday that the former first lady Suzanne Mubarak be detained for 15 days to investigate charges she abused her husband's influence for unlawful personal gain. The couple deny the charges.Suzanne Mubarak returned a Cairo villa and gave authorities the power of attorney to withdraw up to 20 million Egyptian pounds ($3.4 million), which authorities said she held, from two bank accounts, MENA said.An archiving official in South Sinai, Mohamed Ahmed Hamed, told Reuters Suzanne Mubarak signed documents on Monday where she gave up her assets to the state.Other judicial sources had earlier said her defense team would be signing the documents this week in an apparent attempt to avoid detention.Earlier on Monday, al-Ahram state newspaper said doctors failed to complete a heart test on the former first lady, potentially prolonging her stay in a hospital after suffering symptoms of a heart attack. The newspaper reported that Suzanne Mubarak's doctor told authorities that she could not yet be transferred to prison.Hosni Mubarak, who led Egypt for three decades before he was ousted on Feb. 11 in a popular uprising, also suffered heart problems last month, which means neither can be transferred to prison as demanded by state prosecutors.Some media reports have suggested their family's fortune may total billions of dollars.The conspicuous wealth of senior officials was a major popular grievance in a country where around 40 percent of people live on less than $2 per day.Recent investigations show, for example, that the former Egyptian interior minister Habib el-Adly had enormous wealth, including nine villas of 70 acres, 13 plots of land near Cairo and Ismailiya, a farm in Wadi Natroun in the North of the country as well as other farms near Ismailiya and the Red Sear resort Ein Sokhna, ten acres in the Fayoum area towards the center of the country, four apartments in the upscale Cairo neighborhoods Zamalek and Mohandeseen, as well as other properties and villas in and around Alexandria and along the Cairo-Alexandria highway, al-Ahram reported.
On Friday, Mubarak was interrogated about his ownership of a Sharm el-Sheikh villa estimated to be worth more than 36 million pounds and about alleged personal use of a bank account owned by the Library of Alexandria, according to state media.
