Former top Mubarak regime officials in court

[Turborama]

Source: AP via The Guardian

AP foreign, Thursday February 24 2011

BASSEM MROUE

CAIRO (AP) — An angry crowd of hundreds taunted three former high-ranking members of ousted President Hosni Mubarak's regime as they arrived in court for a corruption hearing Wednesday, screaming "thieves" and "you robbed our money."

Egyptian authorities also imposed a travel ban on two former ministers and the head of state TV and radio — a measure that often serves as a prelude to a criminal investigation and a possible trial, the official MENA news agency said. The move is the latest from Egypt's new military rulers against stalwarts of the former regime.

The three former top officials who appeared in a Cairo Criminal Court on Wednesday — ex-Housing Minister Ahmed Maghrabi, former Tourism Minister Zuheir Garana and steel tycoon and prominent ruling party leader Ahmed Ezz — wore white prison uniforms and sat in a metal cage as a judge issued a ruling blocking any commercial dealings in the men's properties.

Maghrabi shouted out from behind the cage: "I will not be a scapegoat. I am innocent." Ezz and Garana also said they are innocent.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9515297