CAIRO: Egyptian authorities Thursday arrested the country's former Information Minister and the chairman of state TV and radio on corruption allegations, security officials said. The arrests of Anas Al-Fiqqi and Osama Al-Sheikh are the latest steps Egypt's ruling generals have taken against prominent figures in the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, who handed power to the military when he stepped down Feb. 11. Former Information Minister Al-Fiqqi was a confidante of Mubarak and his powerful, one-time heir apparent son Gamal. Under their stewardship, state TV persistently discredited the young organizers of the 18-day uprising that forced Mubarak to step down after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule. The security officials said the Al-Fiqqi investigation looked into the fate of 2 million pounds (about $340,000) he collected in donations to support of a film festival in Cairo. They had no more details. Al-Fiqqi never presented documents explaining how he spent the money, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. A committee amending Egypt's constitution before parliamentary and presidential elections will meet the military council running the country on Saturday to discuss the proposed amendments, one member told Reuters. The 10-member committee will submit its final proposal Thursday to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which it will meet on Saturday, at the end of the 10-day period it was given to draft the changes. “The constitutional amendment committee will meet with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Saturday to discuss the proposal, after which it will announce those amendments,” Sobhi Saleh, the only Muslim Brotherhood member on the committee, told Reuters during the committee's final meeting. “Anything said before that is guesswork,” he said. The key amendments will dismantle the legal mechanisms which kept Hosni Mubarak and his ruling party in power for 30 years until an 18-day uprising ousted him less than two weeks ago. “The constitutional committee for amendments has not released any information about the proposal or the committee's achievements (so far),” legal adviser and committee member Hatem Begatu said, dismissing media reports about the amendments.
