The head of the Illicit Gains Authority on Sunday called on the media to be accurate about the presumed wealth of former President Hosni Mubarak and other officials from his regime.
“The media claims they have billions abroad whereas this is not true, at least from what we know so far,” said Assem al-Gohary, the authority head.
He said the judiciary works with documents and evidence, while the media exaggerates matters only to please public opinion.
“The figures reported in the media were wrong and we have corrected them, but the media did not report our corrections,” he said. “A journalist once claimed Mubarak has US$11 billion according to international reports, but then failed to provide evidence for what he said.
“The media quoted Catherine Ashton, foreign affairs commissioner of the European Union, as saying $5 trillion was siphoned from Egypt to Europe,” he said. “Later, the new EU ambassador to Egypt, James Moran, said that quote was fabricated."
“Also, the media showed a document saying Mubarak has $70 billion at Barclays, then we found out that the document was electronically forged,” he added.
“The media quoted former Tourism Minister Zoheir Garana as saying that if he had $13 billion, as claimed, he would have donated it to the government, which was not at all true,” he said.
