CAIRO: As part of the ongoing interrogation and investigation into former presidential chief of staff Zakaria Azmy, the Ministry of Justice ordered all notary public offices to halt any transactions on his assets, as well as those of his wife. Azmy was detained in Cairo's Tora prison earlier this month pending investigations into the source of his inflated fortune, where he joined former speakers of the People's Assembly and the Shoura Council Ahmed Fathi Sorour and Safwat El-Sherif, as well as ousted president Hosni Mubarak's sons, Alaa and Gamal. A list of Azmy's assets was published in state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, and includes a number of villas, apartments and plots of land in upscale locations around the country. In the elite summer resort of Marina on the North Coast of Alexandria, Azmy reportedly owns two villas, as well as another chalet at another resort also on the North Coast, in addition to other beach side cabanas and apartments in Alexandria. More than three apartments in Cairo's Heliopolis district are also said to be registered in Azmy and his wife's name. Also among his assets are thousands of square meters' worth of land in Hurghada, the Fifth District in New Cairo, near the Pyramids in Giza, and a farm in Beheira. The couple also owns various villas and chalets in Ismailia and the resorts of Ain Sukhna and Fayed. Two Mercedes cars and a luxury boat were also registered in their names. Azmy had also registered other assets in the names of his drivers and secretaries, to keep them off the investigators' radar, according to local press reports. Azmy was one of the ousted president's closest aides and is currently detained for investigation by an anti-corruption agency. A judicial source previously told news agency Agence France-Presse that Azmy is suspected of "inflating his wealth in a way that does not accord with his legal income." He was taken into custody following hours of interrogation by Essam Al-Gawahri, a senior justice ministry official who heads the illicit gains agency, one day before a planned demonstration in Tahrir Square to demand the purge and trial of former regime officials, with Mubarak in their lead. Azmy and his wife were previously banned from travel and their assets were ordered frozen.
