The People's Assembly has stripped independent MP Talaat El-Sadat of parliamentary immunity so that he can be investigated on charges of soliciting bribes, reports Gamal Essam El-Din In a surprise move on Monday the People's Assembly agreed that Talaat El-Sadat, a maverick independent MP and the nephew of late president Anwar El-Sadat, be stripped of parliamentary immunity. The assembly, which approved the move at surprising speed, acted after Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei requested El-Sadat's immunity be dropped so that he could be investigated for allegedly receiving a bribe of LE250,000. According to an 18-page report prepared by the assembly's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, "Marei accused El-Sadat of seeking a bribe of LE250,000 from three businessmen in return for helping them obtain the approval of Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana to license their company." In the words of Minister Marei's request: "Mohamed Ezzeddin Zaki, the owner of the South Valley Real Estate Investment Company (SVREIC), and his two partners, Ehab Abdel-Aziz Morsi and Mohamed Abdel-Latif, lodged a complaint with the chief of the Public Funds Investigation Office, Brigadier- general Mohamed Qassem, in December, 2009, alleging that El-Sadat had asked them for a bribe in return for helping their company be officially licensed to practise the business of tourist transport... Zaki told Qassem that although the minister of transport had initially approved the granting of a licence he later revoked the decision..." "Zaki subsequently asked El-Sadat to pay back the sum of LE250,000 but El-Sadat refused." The committee's report cited Marei's request in detail: "Amal Saad, the wife of businessman Ezzeddin Zaki, gave El-Sadat's wife a bag containing LE25,000. She also gave several bags to Mahmoud Shalabi, the manager of El-Sadat's law office, each containing LE25,000. In total, Zaki paid El-Sadat bribes amounting to LE250,000." In a meeting on Sunday of the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee El-Sadat said that, "this is a part of a campaign against me and is aimed at smearing my reputation." He provided the committee with documents alleging that, "the case was fabricated". El-Sadat asked the committee chairwoman, Amal Othman, and members "not to grant Minister Marei's request since it would be sufficient, at such an early stage of the investigation, for me to testify before prosecution authorities". Othman rejected El-Sadat's request, saying that Major-General Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, chairman of state security police, had sent her a letter in which he stressed that, "El-Sadat's documents are false and forged." During a discussion before the assembly's plenary session on Monday El-Sadat again insisted that the case against him was fabricated. "Not only am I a political opponent of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, but I have levelled many questions in parliament against the interior minister," said El-Sadat. The case against him, he continued, "is a joke, based on gossip rather than concrete evidence". "The documents do not include any photos showing me receiving this alleged bribe or any records against me." El-Sadat also says that Zaki had denied the allegations. "He is a very old man, suffering from paralysis, yet despite being pressured by the state to testify against me he refused. Zaki then decided to come by himself to the Legislative Committee to speak the truth but the committee's chairwoman refused to listen to him on the grounds that this violates the assembly's internal regulations." El-Sadat claims that, "the case was brought against me by state security police in a bid to defame my reputation ahead of parliamentary elections". Wafdist MP Ahmed Nasser also believes the case is motivated by "malice". "It is appalling that the chairwoman of the Legislative Committee refused to listen to Zaki and it is perfectly clear that at this stage it would be sufficient for El-Sadat to testify before the prosecution authorities," he said. Ibrahim El-Gogari, deputy chairman of the Legislative Committee, was not swayed. "The case against El-Sadat was not motivated by malicious intentions," he said. "All the documents provided by the justice minister and prosecutor-general go against El-Sadat making it essential he be stripped completely of parliamentary immunity so that the prosecution authorities can investigate the charges fully." El-Sadat was convicted of "insulting the military" in 2006 and sentenced to a year in military prison. On a television talk show recorded in October 2006, El-Sadat alleged that "military forces and the Republican Guard did not do enough to protect my uncle, late president Anwar El-Sadat, from being assassinated on 6 October, 1981."
