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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Interview Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Hard times for 'loan deputies'
By Gamal Essam El-DinNo sooner had Maher Abdel-Wahed taken over the prosecutor-general's position from Ragaa El-Arabi, who retired on 7 July, than he decided to place Aleya El-Ayyouti on "the arrivals wanted list" so that she would be arrested for committing financial irregularities. El-Ayyouti, who is currently standing trial before the Supreme State Security Court for financial malpractices involving millions of pounds, fled Egypt to Italy on 19 June.
On that date, she managed to get a "15-day travel permit" from El-Arabi to receive medical treatment. The permit, which it was later revealed had been issued secretly, expired on 4 July, but El-Ayyouti never returned. On 12 July, El-Ayyouti's disappearance became public when her lawyer surprised the court by announcing that she was not available because she had travelled abroad under a written permit provided by El-Arabi.
Aleya El-Ayyouti
According to Abdel-Wahed, El-Ayyouti was barred from travelling outside the country because she was standing trial in the case known as that of "the loan deputies." However, Abdel-Wahed said that El-Arabi approved "a travel request" submitted by El-Ayyouti for medical reasons. Abdel-Wahed explained that as the travel permit expired on 4 July and El-Ayyouti subsequently failed to attend the 12 July court hearing in "the loan deputies" case, he gave instructions to inform Interpol of his order for the arrest of El-Ayyouti so as to bring her back to Egypt for interrogation.
El-Ayyouti's escape happened at a crucial and decisive stage in the "loan deputies" case. Following court hearings that dragged on for a year and a half, the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) between 23 and 27 May submitted additional documents to the court which indicated that 51-year-old El-Ayyouti, who was vice-president of the Nile Bank, used her position to provide three businessmen with loans amounting to LE214 million without notifying the bank's board of directors or listing the loans in the bank's books.
In a tactic to prolong hearings and find a loophole, El-Ayyouti presented the Higher Court of Appeals with a request for the disqualification of the chief investigating judge from conducting hearings. El-Ayyouti's request, however, was turned down by the Court of Appeal, which said that it was based on "malice" and aimed at delaying court hearings. At around the same time, the prosecutor-general decided to bring a new charge against El-Ayyouti and the four loan deputies. Not only are they now accused of misappropriating bank funds, but also of profiteering from their jobs.
El-Ayyouti's escape brings to memory the case of Hoda Abdel-Moneim. Dubbed by the local press as the "Iron Lady," Abdel-Moneim absconded to Greece in August 1987 while she was facing charges of forgery and bank fraud and was barred from travelling outside the country at the time. Legal consultants agree that the granting of the travel permit to El-Ayyouti was a serious mistake. "It was supposed that the trial was entering a decisive stage and that Al-Ayyouti and the accused deputies would do their best to find a way out of their crisis. Not one of them, whatever the reasons, should have received a travel permit," Ibrahim El-Nimiki, deputy chairman of the People's Assembly Legislative Committee told Al-Ahram Weekly.
El-Ayyouti is married to Mahmoud Azzam, a private contractor and MP who, allegedly, took advantage of his wife's position as vice-president of the Nile Bank to obtain loans amounting to LE179 million which were not listed in the bank's books. Fifty-year-old Azzam is this week facing the seventh request to drop his parliamentary immunity, as he was accused of issuing three worthless cheques valued at LE750,000.
Azzam is one of four parliamentary deputies who were accused by the prosecutor-general in March 1997 of misappropriating public funds. The other three were Khaled Mahmoud, the son of a former minister of local administration, Yassin Abdel-Fattah Aglan, a Beheira governorate businessman and Tawfik Abduh Ismail, a former chairman of the People's Assembly Planning and Budget Committee and a former minister of aviation and tourism.
Following eleven hours of investigation on Saturday, the chief investigating judge decided to hold Ismail in custody for 15 days. The decision, which took business and parliamentary circles by surprise, stated that Ismail, making use of his position as board chairman of the Commercial Bank of Daqahliya in the years 1994 and 1995, provided his colleagues, deputies Azzam, Aglan and Mahmoud and two other businessmen, Mohamed Elba and Ashraf Labib, with LE450 million in loans and credit facilities without listing them in the bank's books and against the payment of hefty commissions.
In the meantime, the chief investigating judge's decision to put Ismail in custody has this week sparked a legal debate and row in the People's Assembly. Ismail, in a request submitted to the assembly's speaker, Fathi Sorour, complained that the judge's decision to place him in custody is unconstitutional because the assembly's permission has to be sought first. Ismail recalled that he and his three colleague deputies, known later as the loan deputies, were stripped of their parliamentary immunity in February 1995 for the alleged misuse of public funds. "As the prosecutor-general decided to direct a new charge, that is profiteering from my job, he has to seek the assembly's permission to drop my immunity before I can answer investigation questions or be put on custody," Ismail argued. In response, Sorour decided to refer Ismail's request to Justice Minister Farouk Seif El-Nasser.
However Mohamed Moussa, chairman of the People's Assembly Legislative and Constitutional Committee, and Mohamed Hamed El-Gammal, former chairman of the State Council, argue that the chief investigating judge's decision to place Ismail in custody does not require the assembly's prior permission. "As long as the new charges are part of the entire case, the judge is not required to ask the assembly again to drop Ismail's immunity," said Moussa. El-Gammal also said that a request for the removal of Ismail's immunity is only submitted in case of "new charges in a new case, that is totally different from the current one" are directed against him.
On Sunday, the chief investigating judge also decided to place Mohamed Ghoneim, general manager of the Cairo branch of the Commercial Bank of Al-Daqahliya, in custody for 15 days. He charged Ghoneim with cooperating with Ismail to provide nine businessmen, two of whom are MPs, with LE290 million without adequate collateral and against the payment of large commissions. The judge has also decided to charge 86-year-old Eissa El-Ayyouti, the father of Aleya and chairman of Nile Bank, with enabling Azzam to receive hefty loans without notifying the board of directors.
In what is probably the biggest financial scandal of the 1990s, the trial in the loan deputies case includes a total of 15 businessmen and 13 bankers who are all accused of financial irregularities involving more than LE1 billion.
