JNN 14 Feb 2011 Dubai : After resigning on the pressure of the Egyptian Public as the President of Egypt for 30 years , Hosni Mubarak has taken refuge in UAE , Dubai .
An official at Cairo airport tells 19 secret jets taking families of moneyed Egyptian and Arab businessmen have already flown out of the capital.
The official stated the jets went away Saturday taking dozens of family members of Egypt’s business elite group. He stated many of the airplanes were steered for Dubai.
The passengers let in the families of telecommunication mogul Naguib Sawiris, the executive chairman of Orascom Telecom, and Hussein Salem, a hotel tycoon and close intimate of President Hosni Mubarak.
The hejira of the families comes up as Egypt accedes its sixth day of bulk unrest aimed up against Mubarak and what they tell have been policies that further enrich the moneyed at the average citizen’s expenditure
The world appeared to be shrinking in around Hosni Mubarak – but that does not mean he is without money or friends.
After an unprecedented night during which the 82-year-old quit as president, Mr Mubarak was said to be at his residence in Sharm el Sheikh refusing to leave his homeland.
At the start of the uprising that would eventually force him from office, he vowed to “die on the soil of Egypt and be judged by history”.
But if the aging politician and former air force officer was in the Red Sea resort, he was keeping his head down.
Sky correspondent Alex Crawford, reporting from Sharm el Sheikh, said: “Security here is surprisingly low-key.
“According to locals, when he was in the town, everyone knew about it because there was a huge number of military vehicles.
After Sheikh Abdullah of the UAE went to visit Mubarak in Egypt (during the protests), I think it is likely he’ll head there. He’d have a palace to live in and it would not be surprising if he turns up there.
“When we went to his villa, there was only one checkpoint which was manned by some uniformed police but mainly plain-clothed police.”
Crawford said he had already fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
“It’s been confirmed that the UAE foreign minister visited Cairo and met with Mubarak and apparently offered him a solution of leaving Egypt and going to Dubai.
“There, it was viewed – certainly in the West – he would be immune from prosecution.”
Dr Chris Davidson, an expert on Middle East politics at Durham University, told Sky News Online that scenario was more than likely.
“He’ll have a palace to live in and it was not surprising in the slightest as he turns up there.”
While Mr Mubarak may have a place to escape to, his position as an Arab ex-leader appeared to be increasingly difficult.
Following his resignation, authorities in Switzerland said it was freezing assets owned by Mr Mubarak’s family – just as they had done when Tunisa’s Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was deposed.
“The government wants to avoid any risk of misappropriation of state-owned Egyptian assets,” a statement by the foreign ministry said.
While it failed to mention how much the assets are worth, in 2009 the country’s national bank said
Egyptian deposits in Swiss bank accounts totalled £2.31bn.
But with Mr Mubarak’s family fortune estimated at more than £40bn, it was small change.
The former president built his wealth from his days as a military man when he allegedly received kickbacks from deals with the Soviet Union.
When Egypt’s economy was liberalised, he and his family happened to be in the best place to benefit from foreign investments.
Mr Mubarak’s capital now exists in property held all over the world – including Britain and the US.
His son Gamal, a billionaire businessman, is known to own a home in the exclusive London suburb of Belgravia.
“After the actions of the Swiss there was speculation as to what would happen to funds elsewhere, including in London,” Dr Davidson told Sky News Online.
“But his wealth is widely spread in property and I would be surprised if all that wealth was recovered.
“I don’t think authorities in the UK will be hasty to take any action.
“The London property market has not gone down as others have done, the prices remain high, and the main reason is because of money coming in from Russia and the Arab world.