EGYPT: Suzanne Mubarak released after turning over $4 million in assets to investigators
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Egyptian state television announced Tuesday that former First Lady Suzanne Mubarak had been officially released after turning over $4 million in assets to the finance ministry, according to Assem Gohari, the head of the country’s illicit-gains authority. Mubarak remains in a hospital, where she was taken after being informed of her possible imprisonment.
Mubarak also agreed to reveal all her local and foreign personal accounts, Gohari said in a statement released Tuesday.
Among the property handed over was a Cairo villa Mubarak allegedly owned that actually belonged to the government, Gohari said.
Gohari said that, since Mubarak handed back her assets, her financial disclosure is now ‘free of any illegal gains.’
Mubarak, 70, is hospitalized in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh after suffering what doctors initially believed was a heart attack upon news Friday that she was going to be detained and possibly sent to the Cairo women’s prison as part of a corruption probe into her family’s finances.
Her husband, former President Hosni Munarak, 83, was also staying at the same hospital and was being held in connection with the corruption probe and charges that he directed security forces to fire at protesters during anti-government demonstrations that brought an end to his nearly 30-year rule in January. The couple’s two sons also have been detained in connection with the corruption investigation.
It was not clear whether Suzanne Mubarak’s release signaled that charges would not be brought against her. Egyptian law provides that individuals in some corruption cases may turn over assets in exchange for charges being dropped.
RELATED:
-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Amro Hassan in Cairo