The Egyptian government on Wednesday said it would announce a list of officials accused of corrupting the country's political and administrative systems under ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Ahmed al-Semman, adviser to Egypt's interim Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, said the plan to announce the first part of the "cleansing list" of Mubarak-era officials had been called off. Semman attributed the delay to the cabinet's busy schedule on Wednesday. A day earlier, Semman said the government would remove all officials linked to Mubarak's administration and members of the disbanded National Democratic Party (NDP) from government posts. Semman said the cabinet is expected to deal with a number of important issues during a meeting Sunday. On Wednesday, the government also approved amendments to the 1952 Treason Law, which could be used to prosecute corrupt officials. Any official convicted under the law would be removed from his post and banned from political activities fro five years. Revolutionary groups have been struggling to press the government and the country's military rulers to purge state institutions of Mubarak loyalists. They believe officials of the Mubarak regime are waging a counter-revolution in a bid to sabotage the January uprising, which ended Mubarak's 30-year rule on 11 February. Translated from the Arabic Edition
