Egypt’s Mubarak to receive refuge, non-persecution in UAE
By Ria Novosti
An agreement on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation was reached after a meeting with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Kuwaiti Al-Qabas daily reported on Friday.
Mubarak, 82, who ruled the country for almost 30 years, stepped down earlier on Friday after 18 days of heated protests demanding his resignation.
“Hosni Mubarak agreed to the terms of resignation if he first was allowed to go to Sharm el-Sheikh (Sinai Peninsula, Egypt) and then on to the city of Al Ain (UAE),” the daily said, adding that the terms also stated that Egypt’s new government would not persecute the former president.
According to Al-Qabas, the UAE foreign minister said his country could help Mubarak in three areas, including holding talks on organizing international safety in Mubarak and his security forces out of the country, guaranteeing he or his family members would not be legally persecuted, and his personal property would not be confiscated.
The ex-president’s wealth is estimated at some $70 billion.
The daily also quoted the foreign minister as saying that the UAE “is prepared to accept [Mubarak] in a ready-made palace in the city of Al Ain.”
Mubarak may travel directly to Al Ain or first go to Germany for medical treatment, the daily said.
After Mubarak’s announcement of resignation, Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the nationwide protests, erupted into loud cheers, chanting “Egypt is free, Egypt is free!”
The main accusations against Mubarak are that his regime fostered poverty, autocracy and large-scale corruption. The main goal of Egypt’s revolution was to replace Mubarak’s regime with a true democracy.
The unexpected resignation made Mubarak, who had earlier in the week said he would remain in office, the second Arab leader forced to quit from a civil uprising. Last month, Tunisia’s president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali resigned and fled the country amid massive protests against his regime.
