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Al-Ahram Weekly 12 - 18 August 1999 Issue No. 442 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 12 - 18 August 1999 Issue No. 442
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Books Features Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters More MPs behind bars
By Gamal Essam El-DinMaintaining his tough posture in the "loan deputies" case, Chief Investigating Judge Mohsen Sobhi, has ordered that two more defendants -- Kamel Elba and Mokhtar Abdel-Wahab -- be remanded in custody for 15 days.
Elba, board chairman of the National Company for Real Estate Development, was accused of receiving, without collateral, almost LE168 million in loans from Tawfik Abdou Ismail, MP and former chairman of the Commercial Bank of Daqahliya, and Aleyya El-Ayyouti, vice-president of the Nile Bank, in return for hefty commissions. Elba was also accused of using these loans in illegal real estate speculation.
As for Abdel-Wahab, deputy chairman of El-Mohandes Bank, he was charged with providing Mahmoud Azzam, MP and private contractor, with loans amounting to LE63 million, without collateral, in violation of the bank's regulations.
Sobhi also decided that four other defendants should remain behind bars for an additional period of 15 days. Most prominent among these is businessman Yassin Aglan, board chairman of the Misr Food Company. Aglan was accused of receiving more than LE60 million in loans from the Commercial Bank of Daqahliya, without collateral, against the payment of commissions. Ibrahim, Aglan's brother and a member of parliament disappeared two weeks ago to elude questioning by Judge Sobhi.
Sobhi, on the other hand, decided to release two businesswomen -- Mona El-Ayyouti, a professor at Cairo University's Faculty of Economics and Political Science, and Hoda Mustafa Shawki, an accountant. El-Ayyouti, sister of businesswoman Aleyya El-Ayyouti who fled last month to France, managed to prove, with supporting documents from the Central Bank, that she had paid back a banking loan of LE13 million. Shawki did likewise.
At present, 10 defendants -- three of them MPs -- have been taken into custody, seven others have been released, with or without bail, and three defendants are still at large. All in all, the investigation covers a total of 32 businessmen and bankers who are all accused of financial irregularities involving more than LE1 billion.
According to informed judicial sources, the investigation is expected to come to a close at the end of this month. The chief investigating judge still has 12 defendants to question.
In the meantime, Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed ordered that Interpol should be informed of a warrant for the arrest of Aleyya El-Ayyouti, in order that she be brought back home for interrogation. Abdel-Wahed also ordered that security forces should arrest the two other defendants who are still at large as soon as possible -- Hossam El-Manawi and Ibrahim Aglan.
Abdel-Wahed announced this week that parliamentary immunity should not be granted to "those who are involved in corruption." "All people should know that they stand on equal footing before justice and the law," he said. Abdel-Wahed, however, said the travel permit provided by Raga'a El-Arabi, the former prosecutor-general, to Aleyya El-Ayyouti, the first defendant in the loan deputies case, was his legal right as prosecutor-general. "This right, however, should not be exercised at random. It should be justified by clear-cut legal reasons. The opinion of the judge, who is in charge of conducting the investigation should also be sought before granting a travel permit to any of the defendants," Abdel-Wahed said.
For his part, Interior Minister Habib El-Adli gave instructions that security protection for Judge Sobhi be tightened. Sobhi informed security forces last week that he had received some threatening phone calls, which he attributes to his tough action against several defendants.
For the fifth week, the dramatic developments of the case continued to trigger wide-scale anger in parliament. Several deputies expressed fears that the scandalous effects of the case will negatively affect the performance of the next parliamentary session. El-Badri Farghali, a deputy for the leftist Tagammu Party, expects that the next session will be more concerned with discussing matters related to deputies' membership, than with reinforcing parliament's supervisory and legislative roles. "Membership matters covered 60 per cent of parliamentary debates in the last session. I expect that this will soar to at least 80 per cent in the next," Farghali said.
Khaled Mahmoud, a Beheira governorate deputy who was taken into custody for 15 days last week, said that charges had been levelled against him because he tried to form a parliamentary fact-finding committee to probe the secret expenditures of the Administrative Control Authority (ACA), a government watchdog body.
Mahmoud also said the case is part of a frantic struggle between businessmen over real estate investments and banking loans. It is noteworthy that ACA played a major role in revealing the alleged financial irregularities in the loan deputies case.
