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Al-Ahram Weekly 26 Aug. - 1 Sep. 1999 Issue No. 444 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 26 Aug. - 1 Sep. 1999 Issue No. 444
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Loan deputies, drug deputies, hooligan deputies; will the people's deputies please stand up. With one more MP indicted -- for "hooliganism" -- and a former chairman of the Assembly's Industry Committee receiving a ten-year prison sentence -- in a retrial -- parliament's rough time keeps getting rougher. Gamal Essam El-Din keeps track
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MPs pile up epithets
Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahid decided on Sunday to put Omar Abu Steit, a deputy for the Upper Egypt governorate of Sohag, and eight others on trial before the Giza Criminal Court on charges of hooliganism. Hearings will open on 2 October. Abdel-Wahid's decision, taken following a week-long interrogation of Abu Steit, raised to five the number of parliamentarians facing trial. The other four are implicated in what is called the case of the "loan deputies" and are accused of financial malpractices and fraud. One of them, Ibrahim Aglan, disappeared three weeks ago.
Abu Steit, a veteran member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), is facing six charges that include the recruitment of thugs to evict the residents of an apartment building in Giza and the use of an unlicenced automatic rifle. Following a decision to strip Abu Steit of his immunity at a stormy meeting of parliament's Legislative and Constitutional Committee, Abdel-Wahid ordered him remanded in custody for four days. This was later extended by 30 days.
Abdel-Wahid also decided on Monday that Mohamed Sadek Okasha, NDP deputy for the Giza Governorate, be kept in custody for 45 additional days. Okasha, who was first taken into custody for 10 days, is charged with issuing three worthless cheques to the amounts of LE1 million, LE400,000 and LE650,000. He was also charged with submitting false documents alleging that he is the proprietor of a LE35 million tourist hotel in Giza. Okasha was stripped of his parliamentary immunity thrice in two weeks.
Also on Monday, investigating magistrate Mohsen Sobhi concluded his investigation of the "loan deputies" case by interrogating the three remaining suspects on a list of 32. The charges against the 32, including four MPs, will either be dropped or the suspects will stand trial before another bench of the Supreme State Security Court for the misappropriation of public funds, facilitating the illegal acquisition of public funds and profiteering.
Ashraf Labib, a suspect and owner of the Egyptian Centre for Road Equipment, has disappeared, becoming the fourth defendant to dodge interrogation. In reaction, the magistrate ordered his arrest. Labib, who has a dual Egyptian-Danish nationality, is likely to have fled to Denmark. He is accused, along with some officials at the Daqahliya Bank of Commerce, of profiteering and facilitating the illegal acquisition of loans amounting to LE86 million for himself and two other suspects -- Khaled Mahmoud and Yasseen Agaln.
The magistrate ordered the release of suspects Fouad Hagras and Abdel-Hamid Abdel-Qader on a bail of LE100,000 each. Hagras, a former MP and owner of a large fertiliser trading company, is accused of receiving LE30 million from the Daqahliya Bank of Commerce without adequate collateral. He was freed after submitting medical documents showing that he underwent three surgeries in England last month. Abdel-Qader, chairman of the Menufiya Steel Company, is accused of cooperating with ex-minister Tawfik Abdou Ismail, MP and former chairman of the Daqahliya Bank of Commerce, to illegally receive loans worth LE2 million over a seven-month period. The magistrate also decided to release Alaaeddin Hussein, manager of the Al-Fateh Trade and Development Company, without bail.
In total, the magistrate has ordered that 15 suspects be held in custody and has released 12 others, on bail or without. The whereabouts of four suspects -- Aleya El-Ayyouti, Hossam El-Manawi, Ibrahim Aglan and Ashraf Labib -- are unknown. One suspect, Mohamed Hussein Saleh, manager of the National Group of Tourism Investments, died last year.
The drama of MP misconduct did not involve the parliamentarians only, but extended to cover members of their families as well.
On Monday, the Shubra Court of Misdemeanours sentenced Ibrahim Shaladim, son of MP Salaheddin Shaladim, to four years in prison with hard labour for speeding that resulted in a fatal road accident. Ibrahim Shaladim was referred early this month by Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahid to a quick trial. The 18-year-old, whose father is a prominent businessman and the secretary-general of the NDP office in Suez City, was accused of the unintentional manslaughter of Ihab Abdel-Rehim and his child, Ahmed, while driving his car on the 6th of October Bridge on the night of 27 July. Abdel-Rehim's wife was seriously injured. Ibrahim Shaladim, who was driving without a licence and in a state of drunkenness, was apparently in a car race with a 19-year-old friend, Mansour Hanafi. The latter was also sentenced to four years behind bars.
The reputation of MPs suffered another blow when the Giza police arrested last week Shaaban Khalifa, brother of MP Abdou Khalifa, NDP deputy for Al-Badrashein district in the Giza Governorate, and his cousin, Abdel-Atti Khalifa. The two are accused of deliberately shooting and killing Hisham Okasha, a state employee, with whom they were involved in a vendetta. The two were remanded in custody for four days.
The behaviour of some MPs has revived calls by opposition parties, especially the Wafd, that parliament be dissolved and a more transparent electoral system be introduced.
Ten years again
At the conclusion of a retrial last Thursday, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Abdel-Wahab El-Habbak, former chairman of the Holding Company for Engineering Industries (HCEI), one of 17 government-owned holding companies, to a 10-year jail term after finding him guilty of using his post to make illegal profits estimated at more than LE100 million. El-Habbak, who had been chosen by the ruling National Democratic Party to head the People's Assembly's Industrial Committee in the mid-1980s, was also fined the sums of $25.6 million and LE5.3 million.
Abdel-Wahab El-Habbak
The sentence was similar to one El-Habbak had drawn from the Supreme State Security Court in 1997. But unlike the previous sentence, El-Habbak's wife, Laila, his sons, Ihab and Ashraf, and daughter, Siham, were ordered by the court to reimburse the state treasury for the amount of $4.6 million and LE5.5 million.
After handing down the sentence, Judge Mohamed Abbas Mahran said the corruption charges date back to the period from 1975 to 1996, when El-Habbak, making use of his posts then as chairman of El-Nasr Electrical and Electronic Appliances Company (Philips) and chairman of HCEI, received illegal and hefty commissions, which he deposited in foreign banks, in return for committing a variety of administrative and financial irregularities.
The judge said the Administrative Control Authority (ACA), which had referred the case to the prosecutor-general, ascertained that El-Habbak had mysteriously made, in a short period of time, a fortune of $24.6 million, in addition to LE5.5 million. El-Habbak, who failed to come up with legal sources for his wealth, reached a secret agreement with the ACA, reimbursing the government for $20 million.
But the secret agreement was exposed by a national magazine, which reported that El-Habbak's wife had tipped off the ACA about her husband's illegal wealth in retaliation for his intention to marry another woman. The publicity resulted in a cabinet statement, confirming that El-Habbak was being investigated for alleged financial malpractice. Following the announcement, El-Habbak was remanded in custody for 15 days, pending investigation. El-Habbak was banned from travelling abroad and was finally put on trial before the Supreme State Security Court. In July 1997, the court sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment and fined him the sums of $24 million and LE5 million.
A year ago, El-Habbak contested the ruling before the Court of Cassation. The Cassation Court ordered a retrial by the Cairo Criminal Court. The Criminal Court's verdict was more severe than the first one because it involved El-Habbak's wife and three children.
