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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 December 1999 Issue No. 460 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 December 1999 Issue No. 460
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Debate Focus Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters MP faces prison term
By Gamal Essam El-DinMohamed Sadek Okasha, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and a deputy for the district of Al-Saff in Giza governorate, is likely to lose his parliamentary seat in the near future. Following four months of investigations and a trial, the Cairo Criminal Court found him guilty on Monday of submitting forged documents and sentenced him to one year imprisonment with hard labour.
According to Ibrahim El-Nimiki, deputy chairman of the People's Assembly's Legislative and Constitutional Committee, the sentence is cause enough for the People's Assembly to drop Okasha's parliamentary membership. El-Nimiki told Al-Ahram Weekly that the constitution and the Assembly's regulations state that membership is dropped if an MP is convicted of crimes such as forgery or financial fraud. "This clearly applies to Okasha because the court found him guilty of submitting false documents," El-Nimiki said.
In accordance with parliamentary rules, El-Nimiki said, the justice minister should inform the Assembly via an official letter that Okasha had been convicted of forgery. "At the request of Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour, the Assembly's Legislative and Constitutional Committee will convene to study the court's verdict. Later, the committee will have to submit a report to the Assembly which, in a plenary session and with a two-thirds majority, will decide to drop Okasha's membership," he added.
Should he be dismissed, Okasha will be the first deputy to lose his parliamentary membership since the incumbent Assembly was elected in 1995. Two MPs -- Khaled Mahmoud, who is currently standing trial on charges of financial irregularities, and Yasser El-Lahami -- have said they would resign from the Assembly, but a decision remains to be taken.
Okasha had stood trial before the Court of Misdemeanours on charges of issuing a worthless LE1 million cheque. He was also tried before the Criminal Court on charges of submitting false documents. He was acquitted on the first charge but was found guilty of the second.
Okasha's problems began five months ago when a request was submitted to Sorour asking that his parliamentary immunity be dropped so that he might be investigated for issuing the cheque. The Legislative Committee turned down the request after Okasha, who submitted a number of documents, managed to convince members that he had paid back the money and reached a settlement with his creditor.
Okasha's documents were later found by Sorour to be false. Sorour said Okasha's business partner, to whom the cheque was issued, had presented him with new documents proving that Okasha, in collaboration with a lawyer, had deceived the committee by providing its members with forged reconciliation details. The 49-year-old Okasha, a tourism entrepreneur, also forged documents to prove that he is the proprietor of a LE35 million hotel in Giza.
In another development, the trial of four MPs, all NDP members, resumed this week. The trial, dubbed by the local press 'the case of the loan deputies', was nearing its end before it was interrupted by the death of Hassib El-Batrawi, chief judge of the State Security Court hearing the case, of a heart attack. Postponed three times during the last three years, the trial resumed before a new circuit of the State Security Court. On Sunday, the court heard the testimony of Fahmi Abdel-Latif, deputy chairman of the Administrative Control Authority (ACA), and a witness for the prosecution.
Abdel-Latif, who also acts as ACA's supervisor on banking transactions, charged Tawfik Abdou Ismail, one of the four MPs and former chairman of the Commercial Bank of Daqahliya (CBD), with leading five members of CBD's board of directors in facilitating the illegal acquisition of as much as LE465.3 million by 22 companies and eight businessmen, many of them involved in real estate investments.
Abdel-Latif alleged that CBD, headed by Ismail in 1995, became bogged down in a series of serious financial irregularities. "Taking note of these irregularities, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided to take action by appointing a supervisory member on CBD's board," Abdel-Latif said. "This member discovered a number of irregularities committed by Ismail."
As an example, Abdel-Latif cited Ismail's decision to provide large loans to five businessmen, one of them an MP, without adequate collateral and at the expense of CBD's cash liquidity. "The supervisory member informed Ismail that the provision of these loans goes against banking regulations and could expose him to legal action," Abdel-Latif said. He said Ismail ignored the member and went as far as to abuse his position as chairman of parliament's Budget and Plan Committee at that time by taking out loans worth LE150 million in the name of CBD to meet the bank's financial commitments. "These large, illegal loans placed CBD in a severe financial squeeze," Abdel-Latif added.
