The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi-led Nour Party have rejected that the detained officials of the former regime benefit from the Jama’a al-Islamiya’s proposal to grant amnesty to political prisoners convicted under the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Finance Minister Momtaz al-Saeed had on Tuesday said those officials, who are detained on charges of corruption, offered to relinquish part of their wealth to the state in return for the government dropping the lawsuits filed against them, saying that the most prominent of them was Ahmed Ezz, steel tycoon and secretary of the disbanded National Democratic Party.
“The proposal pertains to those who were convicted in political cases, while those officials are being tried in criminal cases,” said Hatem Abdel Azim, a member of Parliament’s legislative committee. “None of them is being tried before an exceptional tribunal.”
Yousry Hammad, a spokesperson for the Nour Party, said the proposal is clear and should not be misinterpreted. “We refuse to pardon those who corrupted our political life and stole the wealth of the country,” he said.
