Mubarak. Said to be in Sharm el-Sheikh
צילום: AP
Egypt freezes Mubarak's assets
Worldwide assets of Mubarak family to be frozen as British PM meets with top officials in Cairo
Egypt's top prosecutor requested on Monday the freezing of the foreign assets of ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family, announced state TV.
Security officials said that the prosecutor general asked the Foreign Ministry to contact countries around the world so they can freeze his assets abroad. The president's domestic assets were frozen soon after he stepped down, they added.
The freeze applies to Mubarak, his wife, his two sons and two daughters-in-law, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the press.
The announcement came as British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Cairo to meet with top Egyptian officials, the first trip of a world leader since Mubarak's fall. He said he would talk to those in charge to ensure "this really is a genuine transition" to civilian rule.
The Mubarak's family's wealth - speculation has put it at anywhere from $1 billion to $70 billion - has come under growing scrutiny since Mubarak's Feb. 11 ouster opened the floodgates to three decades of pent-up anger at the regime.
Egyptian youth activists meeting with foreign diplomats in Cairo Monday, also singled out the search for Mubarak's assets as one of the ways other countries could help Egypt following the three week uprising that transfixed the world.
"When Egypt gets back that money, it won't need the foreign aid, and you will be relieved of that burden," said Islam Lutfi, who represent the Muslim Brotherhood on the activist coalition.
Meanwhile US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns arrived Monday for three-day visit and Cameron of Britain came to meet Egypt's Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and members of the country's opposition groups.
He told reporters on the plane to Cairo that he would to "talk to those currently running Egypt to make sure this really is a genuine transition from military rule to civilian rule."
Cameron told Tantawi, the head of the military council running the country, that Britain wanted to support Egypt's transition to democracy. "As old friends of the Egyptian people, we come not to tell you how to do things but to ask how we can help you do what we know you want to do," he said.
Cameron said he would not meet with representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and best organized opposition group, which was banned but tolerated under Mubarak.
The group announced Monday that it had chosen a name for its new political party, "Freedom and Justice." Though allowed to compete in elections as independents, the Muslim Brotherhood was never allowed to formally turn itself into a political party under the previous regime.
Addressing recent anti-government protests around the region, Cameron called on Middle Eastern governments to respond with "reform not repression."
Libya's response has been particularly brutal, and Cameron called its treatment of protesters "completely appalling and unacceptable."
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