‘Casanova' jailed FORMER MP Ali Wanees has been sentenced to a three-month jail term on charges of committing a scandalous act on a public road. The Salafist MP is due to be jailed for another month on charges of assaulting security forces who arrested him after they found him in a car with a teenage girl on a road between Cairo and Alexandria. The girl who was with him will be jailed for a month. The Toukh Appeals Court on Wednesday quashed the appeal filed by Wanees. During an investigation conducted with him a few months ago, Wanees denied the accusations levelled against him, claiming that the girl was his fiancée and that he was the victim of a smear campaign. Shafik's assets frozen FORMER presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik and his three daughters have been prevented from disposing their stocks, bonds and assets. The Mubarak-era prime minister and his daughters were also placed on an airport watch list. Tuesday's decision by the deputy chief justice of the Court of Cassation backs a former decree passed in October by the Illicit Gains Authority. A press release by the stock market said the decision covered all stocks and bonds and all brokerage firms and investments. Shafik is accused of selling 40,000 square metres of land owned by the Cooperative Housing Association for Military Pilots at a fraction of its market value to Mubarak's sons Gamal and Alaa during the 1990s. Shafik was head of the association at the time. Shafik will also be tried in absentia this month on charges of financial corruption when he was the civil aviation minister. The Justice Ministry's decision to freeze Shafik's assets will be applied to all kinds of disposables, including beneficial ownership. 19 citizens deported NINETEEN Egyptians who were detained in Kuwait late last month for organising a gathering without permission returned to Egypt on Monday. They were accused by the Kuwaiti authorities of organising a gathering and collecting donations for Egyptian political parties including Al-Dostour Party and the Popular Current. The 19 were part of a group of 40 Egyptians. Twenty of them were arrested and detained last month. One was later released when Kuwaiti authorities discovered he was a juvenile. Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesman Amr Roshdi said Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr raised the issue with his Kuwaiti counterpart a few days ago. The Egyptian ambassador in Kuwait was also in contact with the Kuwaiti interior minister and other top officials to avoid the Egyptians' deportation. But Kuwaiti authorities insisted on deporting them on the basis that Kuwaiti law forbids Kuwaiti citizens or residents from assembling without permission. Rent strike OWNERS of old housing blocks protested in front of the state TV building Maspero on Friday to pressure the Housing Ministry into amending a law defining how much old housing units are in a way which allows a hike in rent. The Association of the Owners Harmed by the Old Rent Law vowed to continue their sit-in until the government responds to their demands. The rent of apartments in old housing blocks was fixed in the early 1950s, and in many cases never changed, allowing building owners to collect just a few pounds monthly from tenants. In some cases, tenants illegally enable their heirs to inherit a housing unit, making the lease lifetime. Ex-deputies protest SEVERAL members of the dissolved parliament staged a sit-in on Monday in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) seeking to annul the SCC ruling passed in June which ordered the dissolution of the parliament. The aim of the sit-in was to attract attention to what the former deputies claimed was public harm as a result of the suspension of the work of the legislative authority during what they added was such a critical time.
