CAIRO - The fortune of ousted Egypt president Hosni Mubarak and his associates in Britain is probably about £40 million, the British envoy in Cairo told a TV talk show. “I have information that the money in the bank accounts of Mubarak and his aides in London comes to approximately 40 million sterling,” Ambassador James Watt said. “The British government has already frozen the assets of 40 people in the UK and is ready to do more to respond to any request by the Egyptian Government to trace fugitives,” he added. This week, leading British paper the Independent reported that Egypt's former finance minister, Youssef Boutros Ghali, sentenced to 30 years in prison earlier this month for squandering public funds, is living openly in London. British Shadow Justice Minister Andy Slaughter told the paper that he'd been contacted by expatriate Egyptians living in his constituency who were furious that Ghali had been seen "wandering around London with impunity". "This country once had a reputation for upholding international law, not as a refuge for criminals and fraudsters," Slaughter said.
