General Prosecutor lifts travel ban off 10 former-regime members

Mubarak-era officials are "temporarily" allowed to travel after paying off gifts they received from a state-owned publishing organisation Talaat Abdullah, Egypt's general prosecutor has lifted a travel ban on ten members of Hosni Mubarak-era officials after they repaid a value of gifts they received from the state-owned Al-Ahram Press and Publishing Organization. Abdullah issued the decision on Monday as a temporary order until the investigation on "Al-Ahram Gifts" ended. The officials included former health minister Hatem El-Gabali, former head of the council of representatives Ahmed Fathi Sorour, Sorour's ex-office manager Yousry El-Sheikh, former prime-minister Ahmed Nazif's secretary Mohamed Samy Saad and former minister of legal affairs and parliamentary councils Mofid Shehab. A Cairo Criminal Court had also postponed a motion to freeze the funds of 26 Mubarak-era officials in relation to the case in question until February 5. Those members included the deposed president and his family along with former members of the Al-Ahram Board of Directors. A report issued by the Central Auditing Organization stated that gifts received by the former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif alone was worth up to 1,700,000 EGP while Safwat El-Sherif made up to 1,300,000 EGP. The report estimated Mubarak's gifts to be worth up to six million Egyptian pounds which he received in the form of jewelry, watches, ties, pens, leather bags and belts. Farid El-Deeb, Mubarak's lawyer, said on Sunday in an interview with Al-Hayat TV that the total value of gifts given by the Al-Ahram organization to Mubarak's family during 2006 - 2011 reaches up to 18 million Egyptian pounds approximately. From Ahramonline