REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CAIRO - Egyptian prosecutors questioned ousted president Husni Mubarak on Saturday over gifts worth millions of Egyptian pounds (hundreds of thousands of US dollars) he allegedly received from the country's top newspaper as a show of loyalty while he was in power, a security official said.
Mubarak is serving a life sentence after being convicted for failing to stop killings of protesters during 2011 uprising. A court will look into his appeal on Sunday. If his appeal is accepted, Mubarak has a chance to walk free from prison until a retrial is scheduled.
He was moved to a Cairo military hospital last month after slipping inside a prison bathroom and injuring himself.
A security official says Mubarak was questioned over watches, pens, bags, belts and jewelry he reportedly received from the official Al Ahram newspaper. The official did not say if any charges were pending over the alleged gifts. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to media.
The list of gifts is long and includes 36 named recipients, including Mubarak's wife Suzanne, his two sons, and his top associates including former information minister Safwat el-Sherif and former prime minister Ahmed Nazif, according to the daily el-Shorouk.
The website for Al Ahram carried an official report estimating the value of the gifts at some six million Egyptian pounds, approximately 1 million USD. The newspaper said that "Al Ahram Gifts" was a ritual when the newspaper was run by Mubarak-era loyalists. Its management was changed following the uprising. Lawyers for the Mubarak family, for Nazif and for Sherif could not immediately be reached for comment.
Many former members of Mubarak's regime have been charged with corruption or the killing of protesters during the uprising. Some are serving jail terms, others are detained pending trials, and others have been released after charges were dropped. Prosecutors have so far been unable to convict Mubarak or his immediate family on corruption charges, although the two sons are still standing trial.
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