Newsmaker

Authorities detain wife of deposed Mubarak

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-13 21:35

CAIRO -- Egyptian authorities on Friday ordered the detention of Suzanne Mubarak, wife of deposed President Hosni Mubarak, the government-run MENA news agency reported.

The move came a day after the government said Mubarak and his wife were questioned over suspicions they illegally amassed vast wealth.

MENA said prosecutors ordered Suzanne Mubarak, who is 70, detained for 15 days pending further investigation of the allegations. It was not immediately clear where she would be held.

The 83-year-old former president is in a hospital in the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Hosni Mubarak had been questioned several times, but Thursday was the first time his wife faced interrogation.

MENA said Suzanne Mubarak was asked about 20 million Egyptian pounds ($3.3 million) held in her name in one of the Cairo banks as well as a luxurious home in Cairo.

Both Suzanne Mubarak and her husband were questioned in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, where they have been staying since he was deposed February 11 by a popular uprising. She has been staying in the town in their villa, which has an estimated value of 36 million pounds ($6 million).

A report by a financial oversight body said that Mubarak and his family had numerous bank accounts in foreign and local currencies, luxury apartments and palaces and valuable land holdings. Some estimate his fortune in the tens of billions of dollars.

Mubarak denies the allegations.

Mubarak also faces charges over deaths of protesters during the uprising.