AFP - Egypt's prosecutor general on Monday requested a freeze on the foreign assets of Hosni Mubarak and his family, 10 days after the longtime president resigned in the face of a popular uprising.
Abdel Magid Mahmud tasked Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit with contacting foreign countries to seek a freeze on assets held by Mubarak, his wife Suzanne, sons Alaa and Gamal and their wives Heidi Rasekh and Khadiga al-Gammal, his office said.
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Mubarak is widely thought to have grown wealthy during his three decades in power, although an unidentified legal adviser was quoted by the state-run MENA news agency on Sunday as saying talk of a multi-billion-dollar fortune was nothing but "a groundless rumour".
Switzerland, which froze Mubarak's assets within hours of his resignation on February 11, said on Sunday that the former president had "tens of millions of francs" in Swiss financial institutions.
"We do not yet know if these funds are legitimate or not," said Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Stefan von Below, adding that if they had been illegally obtained, "competent judicial bodies will decide who are the entitled parties".
Twelve people have had their assets pre-emptively frozen by Switzerland, including Mubarak's immediate family members as well as four of his government ministers.
One Swiss franc is worth about one US dollar or 77 euro cents.
The fate of Mubarak's assets in the European Union was likely to come up on Tuesday when EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton visits Cairo, after ambassadors from the 27 EU member states agreed in principle in Brussels on Friday to freeze the assets of members of his inner circle.
Mubarak, 82, withdrew to his heavily guarded villa in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on the day he stepped down. He has not been publicly seen since, amid speculation about his health.
In the remarks carried Sunday by MENA, Mubarak's legal adviser "categorically denied false and misleading information" about Mubarak's wealth in both foreign and domestic news media.
Such speculation, he said, was meant "to undermine his reputation, his honesty... and the honourable history of Mubarak in the service of the homeland for 62 years."
Nationwide protests erupted on January 25, ending Mubarak's firm grip on power in less than three weeks and sending shockwaves far beyond the borders of the Arab world's most populous nation.
Around 365 people were killed and about 5,500 wounded during the 18 days of protests which led to Mubarak's resignation and a military rule headed by Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi.
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