Capital connection: Mubarak’s son Gamal and his wife Khadiga claim they no longer live at the Knightsbridge house
The full extent of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's links to London were revealed today after an Evening Standard investigation.
It has emerged that the deposed leader's first granddaughter was born in an expensive private hospital in the capital last year despite recent claims that his son Gamal no longer lives here.
The baby's birth certificate states that she and her family were based at an £8.5million house in Knightsbridge as recently as last year.
Gamal, 47, who was groomed as his father's eventual successor, has attempted to play down his connection to London after rumours circulated that he had escaped here from Egypt with his family at the height of the civil unrest. He is believed to have instructed his British housekeeper to tell reporters he had sold the six-floor Georgian mansion years ago and no longer has anything to do with the property.
It is not known whether Gamal is currently at the house but family friends have told the Standard that his wife Khadiga is living at a secret address in the capital with her daughter.
Last Friday there were wild celebrations in Cairo when his 82-year-old father announced his resignation after Egyptians took to the streets to protest against his decades of repressive rule.
The ousted leader is believed to have fled to the coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with his wife but there has been speculation that he could eventually decide to move to London.
The former president is reputed to have amassed a fortune worth billions of pounds, with funds in British and Swiss banks and properties in London, New York and Los Angeles. The Swiss authorities have already frozen assets, possibly belonging to Mr Mubarak or his associates.
It can today be revealed that Gamal Mubarak's daughter Farida was born in London in March last year at the private Portland Hospital near Regent's Park.Gamal is said to have paid more than £10,000 for his wife to give birth in the hospital's most expensive "deluxe suite".
The birth was said to be particularly important for Gamal's father as his 12-year-old grandson, Muhammad Mubarak, son of Gamal's older brother Ala'a, died a year before in a Paris hospital after an illness.
The girl's birth certificate, which has been obtained by the Standard, states that Farida Gamal Hosny Mubarak was born on 23rd March 2010 at 209 Great Portland Street to her father Gamal and mother Khadiga, of Wilton Place in Knightsbridge. Gamal has a British passport and in the Nineties worked in the London office of Bank of America as an investment banker.
He later set up his own private equity fund in London, Medinvest, although his role with this company is now said to have ended.
In an interview in 1999, Gamal said: "I was then transferred to London, also with the Bank of America but on the investment banking side. I spent six and a half years in London. Then I branched out with a few of my colleagues in London."
Gamal, nicknamed Jimmy by his British friends, has regularly been seen in Belgravia's finest restaurants and private clubs and his wife is said to enjoy shopping in Selfridges.
Friends of Khadiga, who know her from her days as an undergraduate at the American University in Cairo, told the Standard that she is "in love with London and feels at home here".
David Cohen and Peter Dominiczak (London Evening Standard) 17 Feb 2011
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