Archive for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

Spain seizes assets owned by Egypt’s Mubarak

by admin
December 13th, 2012

Spanish police have found 28 million euros (US$36.5 million) in assets owned by ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and people close to him, including Marbella beach properties and luxury cars, the government said on Thursday.

Egypt had asked Spain to track down assets in the country belonging to the former president and more than 100 people with ties to him, including family members, people who held high-level posts in his government and business leaders.

Spain's interior ministry said it had frozen 18.4 million euros worth of the assets, but did not say whether it would also freeze the remainder.

The properties include two houses in La Moraleja, a wealthy neighborhood of Madrid, seven properties in the Mediterranean beach resort of Marbella, financial products in three banks and also luxury vehicles, the ministry said in a statement.

"The assets could come from crimes such as embezzlement or corruption," the government statement said.

Egypt has asked several countries in Europe and elsewhere to locate assets of Mubarak and people close to him. Switzerland has also frozen assets of the former Egyptian president.

Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades, was forced out in February 2011 after a popular uprising.

In June, he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in killing protesters during the uprising. He is currently in a military hospital because of health problems.

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Spain seizes assets owned by Egypt’s Mubarak

by admin
December 13th, 2012

Spanish police have found 28 million euros (US$36.5 million) in assets owned by ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and people close to him, including Marbella beach properties and luxury cars, the government said on Thursday.

Egypt had asked Spain to track down assets in the country belonging to the former president and more than 100 people with ties to him, including family members, people who held high-level posts in his government and business leaders.

Spain's interior ministry said it had frozen 18.4 million euros worth of the assets, but did not say whether it would also freeze the remainder.

The properties include two houses in La Moraleja, a wealthy neighborhood of Madrid, seven properties in the Mediterranean beach resort of Marbella, financial products in three banks and also luxury vehicles, the ministry said in a statement.

"The assets could come from crimes such as embezzlement or corruption," the government statement said.

Egypt has asked several countries in Europe and elsewhere to locate assets of Mubarak and people close to him. Switzerland has also frozen assets of the former Egyptian president.

Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades, was forced out in February 2011 after a popular uprising.

In June, he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in killing protesters during the uprising. He is currently in a military hospital because of health problems.

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Egypt-Iran ties off the table for now, FMs discuss situation in Syria

by admin
August 25th, 2012

 

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy has no immediate plans to restore ties with Iran, his spokesperson said in comments published Saturday ahead of a landmark visit to Tehran later this month for a Non-Aligned Movement summit, AFP has reported.

"The matter [of restoring diplomatic ties] is out of the question at this stage," Yasser Ali told the Saudi-owned newspaper As-Sharq al-Awsat in an interview also carried by Egyptian media.

Morsi will spend only four hours in Tehran on 30 August, long enough to hand over the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement to the Islamic republic, Egypt's state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

The Egyptian president will stop in Tehran on his way back from a 36-hour visit to China, the country he chose for his first major international outing, Al-Ahram added.

Tehran severed diplomatic ties with Cairo in 1980 after the Islamic revolution in Iran, to protest Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel and its hosting of the deposed shah.

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak regarded Iran as a destabilizing factor in the Middle East.

On August 17, Tehran backed Morsy's proposal at an Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Mecca to form a committee grouping Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to find a settlement to the conflict in Syria.
 

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi discussed the Syrian crisis during a phone call with his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Kamel Amr, Mehr news agency reported.

According to the agency, the two ministers discussed two proposals, one of which was the Iranian of forming a contact group on the developments in Syria, and the Egyptian proposal before the Islamic Summit in Mecca, calling for the formation of a contact group consisting of Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to settle the crisis.

The Iranian foreign minister had announced Friday that Iran will propose a project to solve the Syrian crisis during the Non-Aligned Movement summit, to be held this week in Tehran. The proposal relies on rational, logical and acceptable foundations that are "difficult to oppose,” said Salehi.

 

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Shots fired at Israeli soldiers from Sinai

by admin
July 22nd, 2012

 

Assailants on the Egyptian side of the border with Israel opened fire at a bus carrying Israeli soldiers on Sunday, causing no casualties but damaging the vehicle, a military spokeswoman said.

"Fire was opened at an Israeli army bus carrying soldiers," she told AFP. "Nobody was injured but damage was caused to the bus."

According to the spokeswoman, the attack took place on the "central-southern part" of Israel's 240-km border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. She had no immediate details on the weapons used.

On 13 July, Israeli border police killed one man and wounded another when the pair tried to cross the Egyptian border into Israel.

Border security incidents have increased over the past year, with an increase in lawlessness since the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Israel has accused Gaza-based militants of infiltrating its border with Egypt to perpetrate attacks, such as one in August 2011 in which gunmen launched coordinated ambushes in southern Israel, killing eight people.

Last month, at least three militants sneaked across the border and ambushed two cars carrying Israeli construction workers, killing one and sparking a firefight in which two of the gunmen died.

Israel has speeded up work on a massive steel barrier along its border with the Sinai.

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Elections commission reverses ban on Ahmed Shafiq

by admin
April 26th, 2012

The last prime minister to serve under deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been allowed to re-enter the race for the presidency, one day after electoral authorities disqualified him, the state news agency reported on Wednesday.

Analysts said Ahmed Shafiq's re-entry into the race will make him the favorite of the military and a very strong contender to win Egypt's presidential election set for 23–24 May, with a run-off scheduled in June.

"The Presidential Elections Commission headed by Farouk Sultan accepts the appeal of former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, allowing him to contest the presidential race," MENA reported.

Shafiq had been disqualified on Tuesday after the ruling military council approved a new law drawn up by the Islamist-dominated Parliament denying political rights to anyone who served as president, vice president or prime minister in the decade prior to Mubarak's fall in February of last year.

The electoral commission gave no reasons for accepting Shafiq's appeal, although some analysts said it had acted to avoid further appeals that might have delayed the elections.

An ex-air force commander, Shafiq's success in the elections would extend military rule in a country that has been led by army officers since the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952.

He is likely to take votes that otherwise would go to Amr Moussa, the former chief of the Arab League who is seen as an alternative for voters who do not want an Islamist head of state.

Appeasing Mubarak’s old order

"His entry back into the race will certainly appease remnants of Mubarak's old order. It will also allow the army to breathe a sigh of relief because, of all the presidential candidates, Shafiq is the one who understands the military best," political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah said.

In an interview with Reuters in February, Shafiq said he was running because he had the experience to maintain good ties with the generals and ensure a smooth handover to civilian rule.

The 71-year-old, who was civil aviation minister for a decade, said he can bridge the divisions in Egypt.

The other front-runners are the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsy and Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, a former member of the group.

"The decision to accept my client's appeal proves that the electoral commission functions as an independent body according to the rule of law," Shafiq's lawyer, Shawqi Sayyid, said.

The electoral commission also decided to refer the law that had been used to disqualify Shafiq to the Supreme Constitutional Court to review its constitutionality.

Political activist Hassan Nafaa said the electoral commission’s decision was a rebuke to the Islamist Parliament, which had passed the law to prevent Mubarak associates from running.

"This decision is a slap in the face of Parliament and shows it has rushed into passing a law that is likely to be unconstitutional," Nafaa said, adding that Parliament's authority had been undermined by the decision.

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Update: Israeli police: Rocket from Sinai hits southern city of Eilat

by admin
April 5th, 2012

JERUSALEM — A rocket fired from Egypt's Sinai desert struck the southern Israeli resort of Eilat on Thursday, police said, fuelling Israeli worries over militant activity in the border area.

No casualties or damage were reported.

An Egyptian security source told Reuters in Cairo that Egyptian forces were searching the area along the border but had not found any evidence indicating any rockets had been fired from the Sinai.

The head of Eilat police, Ron Gertner, told Israeli Army Radio that explosions were heard in Eilat soon after midnight. Police found the remains of one rocket in a construction site, about 400 metres (yards) from a residential area.

Asked if the rocket was fired from Sinai, Gertner said: "Based on our working assumptions and the range, yes."

Officials in Israel have been worried that the Sinai has become a base for Islamist militants since former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's downfall last year.

"For a long while now we have been seeing that the Sinai peninsula is turning into a launching ground against the citizens of Israel, for terror," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the attack.

It was launched a day before the start of the Jewish Passover holiday, which commemorates the exodus of the biblical Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Eilat is expected to be full of vacationers during the week-long holiday.

The Israel-Egypt border had been relatively quiet since the two countries signed a peace agreement in 1979. But Israel says that since Mubarak was overthrown, Cairo has lost its grip on the Sinai and militants are exploiting the lawlessness.

Last August, armed infiltrators killed eight Israelis on the Egyptian frontier. Israel's forces, repelling the gunmen, killed five Egyptian border troops. Israel said the attack was orchestrated by Palestinian militants.

To fend off infiltration, Israel is building a fence along the southern border which it hopes to complete by the end of 2012. When it is finished, the barrier will run most of the 266 km (165 miles) from Eilat on the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba up to the already-closed Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean.

"We are building a very impressive security fence, but it doesn't block rockets. We will also find a solution to the rocket problem. We will hit those who come to hurt us and we will also hit those who send them," Netanyahu said in a speech in central Israel.

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Israeli police: Rocket from Sinai hits southern city of Eilat

by admin
April 5th, 2012

A rocket fired from Egypt's Sinai desert struck the southern Israeli city of Eilat on Thursday causing no casualties or damage, Israeli police said.

The head of Eilat police, Ron Gertner, told army radio that explosions were heard in the holiday resort soon after midnight. Police found the remains of one rocket in a construction site, about 400 meters from a residential area.

Asked if the rocket was fired from Sinai, Gertner said: "Based on our working assumptions and the [rocket] range, yes." He added that police were searching for more rockets that may have landed.

The rocket attack came on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday when the Red Sea resort is expected to be full of vacationers.

Officials in Israel are concerned that the Sinai desert has become a flourishing base for Islamist militants since former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's downfall last year.

The Israel-Egypt border had been relatively quiet since the two countries signed a peace agreement in 1979. But Israel says that since Mubarak was overthrown, Cairo has lost its grip on the Sinai and militants are exploiting the lawlessness.

Last August armed infiltrators killed eight Israelis on the Egyptian frontier. Israel's forces, repelling the gunmen, killed six Egyptian border troops. Israel said the attack was orchestrated by Palestinian militants.

To fend of infiltration, Israel has been building a fence along the southern border which it hopes to complete by the end of 2012. When it is finished, the barrier will run most of the 266 km (165 miles) from Eilat on the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba up to the already-closed Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean.

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ElBaradei: Egypt suffers from constitutional, political and legal tampering

by admin
February 21st, 2012

Reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei reiterated his call to reconsider the timeline for the transitional period devised by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) Tuesday. The SCAF has ruled Egypt since the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011.

“In light of this constitutional, political and legal tampering, is not it time to revise the timeline, which is getting more and more complicated by the day?” ElBaradei said on his Twitter.

He also wrote that “the Supreme Administrative Court has ruled that the elections were illegitimate and referred the matter to the Supreme Constitutional Court.”

“How can this Parliament then choose the constituent assembly that would write the constitution before the Supreme Constitutional Court has its say?” he wondered.

The Supreme Administrative Court on Monday referred some of the provisions of the law regulating the People's Assembly and Shura Council elections, the basis for forming the current Parliament, to the Supreme Constitutional Court to determine their constitutionality.

The SCAF had issued the law in July, allocating individual and list-based candidatesin the elections each 50 percent of the People's Assembly seats to compete on. But in September, the SCAF issued amendments to the law, allocating two-thirds of the seats to lists and one-third to individual candidates, banning political parties from competing on individual seats. And in October, the SCAF passed yet a new amendment, allowing political parties to field candidates for individual seats.

State-run Al-Ahram newspaper’s website on Tuesday said the Supreme Administrative Court found suspicion of unconstitutionality, as the law allowed political parties to vie with independents over individual seats.

The court said the law has thereby violated the principle of equal opportunity for all contestants.

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