CAIRO: The European Union plans to adopt sanctions against former Egyptian officials next week, said an EU official on Tuesday. The officials are accused of stashing billions of dollars abroad. Egypt's interim government has asked the United States and European Union to freeze the assets of several former officials. The name of Hosni Mubarak, ousted from Egypt's presidency in February after an 18-day uprising, was not on the original list, according to U.S. and EU officials. Egypt's public prosecutor has since added Mubarak and his family to the list. “The objective is that the asset freeze can be adopted at the foreign ministers' meeting on Monday,” and EU official told Reuters. A spokeswoman said officials were working to enable a decision soon. Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, told the British parliament on Tuesday that Britain has yet to freeze the assets of any former Egyptian officials. “One of the difficulties in pursuing this to the necessary point of freezing the actual assets is the lack of information that has been supplied by the Egyptian authorities,” he said. “We have urged progress within the European Union so that this is done on a European Union basis and that means that the decisive action remains to be taken.” BM
