Monday, 30 May 2011
Former president Hosni Mubarak was ordered last week to stand trial for killing protesters and for corruption and wasting public funds. (File photo)
The wealth of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is no more than $1 million and he has no assets overseas, his lawyer said on Sunday.
Farid al-Deeb also told CNN in an interview that Mr. Mubarak denied charges of graft and killing protesters during the uprising that forced him to step down in February.
“He was very sad and sorry because he did not imagine such accusations,” Mr. Deeb said.
“His entire fortune amounts to around 6 million Egyptian pounds which he saved from working for 62 years. He does not own anything else in Egypt or outside of Egypt.
“He does not own a single dollar abroad,” he said according to Reuters.
Mr. Deeb said the 83-year-old president needed help to go to the bathroom in the hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh where he is detained.
“The president has serious heart problems,” Mr. Deeb said. “He does not watch TV or anything else. They ban him from doing so to avoid more psychological pain.”
“He speaks very little and suppresses a lot of his feelings.”
Mr. Mubarak was ordered last week to stand trial for killing protesters and for corruption and wasting public funds.
More than 840 people were killed during 18 days of protests that toppled Mr. Mubarak. Twenty-six policemen were also killed.
The former president and two former officials was fined 540 million pounds ($90 millon) by a court on Saturday for cutting mobile and Internet services during the protests.
Some media reports have suggested the Mubarak family’s fortune may total billions of dollars.
The president has serious heart problems. He does not watch TV or anything else. They ban him from doing so to avoid more psychological pain. He speaks very little and suppresses a lot of his feelings 
The conspicuous wealth of senior officials was a major popular grievance in a country where around 40 percent of its 85 million population lives on less than $2 per day.
Mr. Mubarak had been interrogated about his ownership of a Sharm al-Sheikh villa estimated to be worth more than 36 million Egyptian pounds ($6.1 million) and about alleged personal use of a bank account owned by the Library of Alexandria, according to state media.
The former president was first detained on April 13 and his detention has been repeatedly extended.
Mr. Mubarak’s two sons, Mr. Alaa and Mr. Gamal, along with dozens of officials and businessmen associated with the former regime, are being detained in Cairo’s notorious Tora Prison that housed political dissidents during the Mubarak era. The former president will be reportedly incarcerated there once he’s fit to travel to Cairo.
(Abeer Tayel, an editor at Al Arabiya, can be reached at: Abeer.tayel@mbc.net)
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