(AFP Photo)
Deputy Head of the State Council Magdy Al-Agaty denied Wednesday earlier news that claimed “presidential benefits” were granted to the Mubarak family.
“No such case was presented to the council in the first place,” Al-Agaty, who is head of the legislative department at the council, told Daily News Egypt over the phone.
Hours earlier, news reports, including print state media and private TV, had announced former president Hosni Mubarak’s legal right to “privileges of former presidents”, a notion similar to the US Former Presidents Act.
Mubarak was born on May 4,1928. After 30 years of power, he currently resides at a military hospital following the revolution that brought him down in 2011. A number of recent videos on social media showed groups of people gathered at the hospital chanting in his favour.
Social media was also stormed with comments Sunday regarding news and pictures of Mubarak’s sons on a trip to the Pyramids with their families. Most posts on Twitter compared Alaa and Gamal Mubarak’s freedom and the jailing of many activists who participated in the 25 January Revolution.
Egypt’s courts had acquitted and released the former president, his sons and many of his administration members of nearly all charges related to their time in power, four years after the revolution.Their acquittal comes after previous convictions and jail terms.
A last court trial session in the ‘Presidential Palace embezzlement’ case is due on 9 May. Mubarak and his sons are charged with acquiring almost EGP 126m from the Presidential Palace budget, and using the money for the construction and development of family-owned assets.
