Mubarak’s sons to be tried for insider trading
CAIRO – Hosni Mubarak‘s two sons were charged Wednesday with insider trading and referred to trial before a criminal court.
A statement by the prosecutor-general’s office carried on the official state news agency said the two, along with seven others, made millions of pounds in illicit gains from the sale of a bank.
Mubarak and his two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa, are already in prison and on trial for separate charges of corruption. A verdict is expected on June 2.
Mubarak himself faces additional charges of complicity in the death of some 900 protesters during the uprising last year that ousted him. But his sons do not face those charges. The former leader could get the death penalty if convicted on the charges linked to killing protesters.
Mubarak stepped down in February last year after three decades in power and was arrested along with his two sons in April last year.
The prosecutor’s statement said Gamal has unlawfully made a profit of nearly 500 million Egyptian pounds from the sale of the Watani Bank and that his brother Alaa used insider information about the bank to reap an illegal profit of some 12 million Egyptian pounds.
One of the seven men charged along with the Mubarak sons is the son of Mohammed Hassanein Heikal, Egypt’s best known political writer and a longtime confidante of the late Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
A date for the trial has yet to be announced and the seven other people charged in the case have been released on bail but are banned from leaving the country.
Gamal Mubarak was viewed by many as a corrupt politician who used his father’s name to illegally amass a fortune while working along with a coterie of regime-backed wealthy businessmen and powerful politicians to ensure that he succeeds his father.
Gamal rapidly climbed to the top of his father’s ruling National Democratic Party to become its de facto boss on the eve of his father’s ouster 15 months ago, when he was effectively running Egypt’s day-to-day affairs.
Many of Gamal’s closest allies are among some three dozen regime stalwarts in detention facing charges of corruption. Some of them have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms.
AP