Ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons were detained for another 15 days, signalling they might soon stand trial, Gamal Essam El-Din reports It was another tough week for the Mubarak clan. The father, ousted president Hosni Mubarak, was detained for another 15 days on 10 May. Mubarak has been in detention at the Sharm El-Sheikh International Hospital since 13 April. He was questioned on Tuesday on two charges: ordering the killing of pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir Square and facilitating the sale of Egyptian natural gas to Israel at a low cost. The questioning of Mubarak began at 11am in the presence of his lawyer Farid El-Deeb, his wife Suzanne and the father of his daughter-in-law, businessman Mahmoud El-Gammal. Reports said the questions focussed on the charge that Mubarak directed the Ministry of Petroleum to help his businessman friend Hussein Salem monopolise the sale of Egyptian natural gas to Israel at a cheap price. The former Egyptian minister of petroleum Sameh Fahmi was referred to trial two weeks ago, facing accusations that he negotiated a deal with the Israeli Minister of Infrastructure Binyamin Ben Eliezer to sell the gas to Israel under pressure from Mubarak. In a statement, the spokesman for Egypt's prosecutor-general said Egypt had lost $714 million as a result of the terms of the deal. The spokesman said that Egypt had sold gas to Israel at an uncompetitive low price, causing big financial losses. The prosecutor-general was hoping to move Mubarak to a military hospital "as soon as his health stabilises". A new medical team will examine Mubarak and is expected to recommend transferring him to the hospital of Tora prison. The questioning of Mubarak came a day after the prosecutor-general ordered that Mubarak's two sons, Alaa and Gamal, be detained in Tora Prison south of Cairo, for another 15 days, which would be their third, two-week stretch in detention in succession. Gamal, the younger son of Mubarak who harboured strong ambitions to succeed his father as president, is suspected of receiving five per cent of the earnings from Egypt's natural gas deal with Israel. Investigation reports said it was agreed that Gamal receives five per cent of the profits from businessman Salem in return for allowing the latter to monopolise the sale of natural gas to Israel. Salem fled Egypt immediately after the revolution erupted on 25 January. Salem built Mubarak a luxurious palace at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Investigation reports said Mubarak paid Salem LE500,000 for the palace although its real price is estimated at LE50 million. Salem entrusted an American construction company with building the palace in 1994. The palace was designed to overlook Neama Bay in Sharm El-Sheikh, including a number of swimming pools and other recreational facilities. In his last years in power, Mubarak opted to stay in Sharm El-Sheikh, far from the headaches of Cairo. Some press reports said Gamal Mubarak faced seven hours of questioning, during which he denied that he had a hand in helping Salem sell natural gas to Israel. "I am not a state official to give orders in this respect," Gamal Mubarak is reported to have told the prosecutor. Legal experts agree that the detention of the three Mubaraks for a third 15 days is the last step before referring them to trial on accusations of illegal profiteering and mass murder. The law gives prosecutors the right to put defendants in custody for 45 days. Several of Mubarak's senior officials were also remanded in custody for a further 15 days, their third consecutive time, including Safwat El-Sherif, secretary-general of the National Democratic Party (NDP) and Zakaria Azmi, Mubarak's chief of presidential staff. Both face charges of illegal profiteering, abuse of the law and inciting mobs and thugs to attack and open fire on protesters in Tahrir Square. Meanwhile, Zuheir Garana, a businessman who was appointed minister of tourism in 2006, was sentenced to five years in jail after being found guilty of involvement in corruption. Garana was convicted of selling vast plots of land to two tourism investors from the United Arab Emirates -- Hussein Sigwani and Hisham Al-Hazek -- against hefty commissions. This, according to the prosecution and the court, caused the treasury to lose $51 million. Garana, Sigwani and Al-Hazek were also fined LE263 million and were dispossessed of land 25 million square metres. The prosecutor-general asked Interpol to extradite Sigwani and Al-Hazek after they fled Egypt. Garana is the second top official of the Mubarak regime to be convicted of involvement in graft after interior minister Habib El-Adli, who was sentenced to 12 years last week. Nearly 850 people were killed and more than 6,000 injured during the mass protests against Mubarak's regime that began on 25 January and which forced him to resign on 11 February after 30 years in power.
