Investigations into the wealth of ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family will be expedited in time for questioning sessions on Tuesday, according to the orders of Assistant Minister of Justice for Illicit Gains Assem al-Gohari. The wives of the ex-president's sons Alaa and Gamal will be summoned for questioning over the assets owned by their husbands, as more details of the family's illegal gains emerged. The Illicit Gains Authority (IGA) requested additional information on an account allegedly used by former First Lady Suzanne Mubarak to manage European grants, as well as on the Alexandria Library bank account. According to investigators, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak have secret accounts overseas as well as villas and apartments taken from Egyptian embassies. Investigations revealed that Alaa has millions of dollars in overseas accounts, besides funds held by both sons inside Egypt. Investigators further showed that officials manipulated stocks to Alaa's profit. For example, the former minister of housing helped Alaa buy a certain stock at LE99 and sell it one week later at LE900, generating LE30 million. They showed that Alaa also made millions through private placements conducted especially for him. Investigations uncovered the fact that Mubarak paid LE500,000 for his residential palace in Sharm el-Sheikh -- an amount believed to be less than 1% of the value of finishing work on the palace, the total surface area of which is 16,000 square meters. The palace, with its private beach, is estimated to cost more than LE60 million. Final investigations carried out by the Administrative Control Authority revealed that business tycoon Hussein Salem gave the palace to Mubarak for free in exchange for his approval to export gas to Israel and on other gas-related deals. Gohari said that an Egyptian committee has met with representatives form the World Bank and United Nations Development Program to help restore money smuggled outside the country. Both organizations expressed readiness to help, he added. He said that official documents requested by some European states have been submitted to help uncover secret accounts abroad. He added that Mubarak will only be summoned for questioning after all authorities have finished their work in order to confront him with the results and the charges brought against him. Meanwhile, the IGA today extended the detention of former Shura Council Speaker Safwat al-Sherif. Translated from the Arabic Edition
