Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Egypt’s public prosecutor moved to freeze the foreign assets of Hosni Mubarak Monday, the first sign that the deposed president would be held to account by the new rulers, while the government said that details published about a Cabinet reshuffle were premature and were based on predictions.

British Prime Minister David Cameron Monday became the first foreign leader to visit post-Mubarak Egypt and pushed for an end to emergency law, while refusing to talk to the influential Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood said any Cabinet reshuffle must purge the old guard associated with Mubarak and announced it will set up the “Freedom and Justice Party” to run in elections, with echoes of Turkey’s Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party.

The prosecutor said in a statement he had asked the Foreign Ministry to use diplomatic channels to request a freeze on foreign assets and accounts held by Mubarak, his wife Suzanne and his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, together with their wives. Media reports suggested the former president’s wealth may total billions of dollars.
Egypt’s general prosecutor also referred former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and former Tourism Minister Zoheir Garranah to the Cairo criminal court Monday, the official MENA agency reported.

Adly is accused of money laundering and Garranah is charged with misuse of public funds, MENA said.
MENA had said the asset freeze applied to Adly was linked to the transfer of some 4 million Egyptian pounds ($675,000) from a private contractor to his personal account.

The downfall of Mubarak in Egypt and uprisings across the region have prompted Western governments to rethink their policies of supporting autocrats, but have also raised concerns about the possible rise of Islamist groups in their place.

Cameron said he did not meet the group because he wanted young people to see there was an alternative to “extreme” Islamist opposition.

“My whole argument is that by opening up societies and having the building blocs of democracy and allowing greater participation, you actually give young people … something else to believe in rather than a more extreme Islamic root,” Cameron said when asked why he did not meet the Muslim Brotherhood.

Cameron met Field Marshal Mohammad Hussein Tantawi, who now heads the military council that governs Egypt, and offered British help with Egypt’s transition to civilian rule. He also met Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq and members of the country’s opposition groups.
The meeting with Tantawi was attended by Lt. Gen. Sami Enan, the armed forces chief-of-staff, and other members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

“I think this is a great opportunity to talk to those currently running Egypt to make sure this really is a genuine transition from military rule to civilian rule,” Cameron said. In his meetings, Cameron is expected to appeal to the military to lift emergency law, implemented after the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 by Islamist officers from his army.

“What is so refreshing about what’s been happening is that this is not an Islamist revolt, this is not extremists on the street, it’s people who want to have the sort of basic freedoms that we take for granted in the U.K.,” Cameron said.
But highlighting Western fears, he said he wanted to expand security ties with Egypt “in combating extremist terror.”

Cameron’s arrival came hot on the heels of a visit by William J. Burns, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, who landed earlier Monday. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is due to arrive in Egypt Tuesday.
Calling ties between Washington and Cairo strong, Burns said the U.S. will encourage “the momentum of transition … through careful preparations of the elections to the further release of detainees to the lifting of emergency law.”
Egypt has said it would like European Union states to cancel its debts to them but has not made a formal request, the EU’s local delegation said, citing the Egyptian finance minister. There was no official confirmation.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet spokesman said Shafiq was still consulting on new ministers to join the government and details published about the changes until now were premature. News reports had detailed a list of changes for several posts, although the key portfolios of foreign, finance, interior, justice and defense were not listed in the reshuffle. The reports of the reshuffle had come on official media and it was not clear why the government appeared to be backtracking.
The reports said the latest reshuffle brought into the Cabinet some new faces including from the Wafd and Tagammu parties.

“No one offered us any post and had they done so, we would have refused because we request what the public demands that this government quit as it is part of the former regime,” said Essam El-Erian, a senior member of the Brotherhood. “We want a new technocratic government that has no connection with the old era,” he told Reuters Monday.

Egyptian online democracy activists called for a demonstration that they dubbed “Tuesday of Challenge” to demand the removal of the interim government, saying it contained too many old faces.
And in a meeting organized to brief the diplomats from the U.S., the EU and Australia, on their activities and future plans, youth activists warned that they would resort to mass protests again if their demands were not met. – Agencies