The court also prevented Mubarak from leaving the country. It clears the way for a criminal investigation and a possible trial of Egypt’s ousted leader.
Ashraf Ameen, a legal expert, said the court verdict comes in line with the interim government’s efforts to fight all forms of corruption and exploitation of power and influence.
“The court verdict shows no one is above the law and everybody is equal in the new era heralded by the Jan. 25 revolution,” he told Arab News.
Ameen said the opening of cases against Mubarak and his family would unveil a lot of corrupt practices and expose officials who supported them.
“Millions of Egyptians have been waiting for this verdict for quite long,” said Abdul Hameed Al-Deeb, a legal consultant. “We have learned from reports that Mubarak and his family have embezzled $70 billion, which is a huge amount by any standard.”
Sabri Abdul Monem, an accountant who works for a medical equipment company, said the retrieving of money looted by Mubarak and his family would help Egypt pay its debts and trade deficits.
He hoped that the government would try to obtain the wealth stolen by other members of the Mubarak administration “because this money belongs to the Egyptian people.”
Presiding judge Makram Awad rejected a defense request for more time to prepare the defense and decided instead to reject the appeal. The opposition that ousted Mubarak has pushed for a criminal investigation and a possible trial for members or all of the family.
Prosecutors’ actions suggest that they would be willing to pursue that course of action.
Mubarak, 82, is suspected of turning a blind eye to corruption by family members and their associates, while many of the allegations of wrongdoing centered on the business activity of his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, as well as Gamal’s wife and her family.
Unlike other leaders, Mubarak was far from ostentatious.
Whatever wealth he and his family may have had was rarely flaunted.
Nearly half of Egypt’s 80 million people live under or near the poverty line set by the World Bank at $2 a day.
