Former minister faces corruption charges

The prosecutor-general is taking legal action against two former officials as well as a member of parliament and others on allegations including financial irregularities and forgery. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed decided on 6 June to refer Mohieddin El-Gharib, a former finance minister, and Fawzi El-Sayed, a businessman and member of parliament, to trial by the Supreme State Security Court. El-Gharib is accused of allowing a group of importers to evade payment of customs duties in return for personal favours during his tenure as finance minister. El-Sayed, a real estate mogul, faces charges of violating building codes and forging official papers to cover up his actions.
And on Tuesday, Abdel-Wahed decided to refer Maher El-Guindi, former governor of Giza, and seven others to trial before the Supreme State Security Court on bribery charges.
The decision to refer El-Gharib to trial followed an 18-month investigation that began in November 1999 -- one month after he left office in a cabinet reshuffle. The charges brought against the former minister include profiteering, misappropriation of public funds and depriving the state of LE28 million in customs duties. Similar charges were brought against Ali Taha, former chairman of the Customs Authority, and four importers.
According to published news reports, Taha confessed that El-Gharib gave him verbal instructions not to take action against the four importers although they did not pay required customs duties. But El-Gharib insisted that he was innocent. He was released on LE30,000 bail. If convicted, El-Gharib could face up to 25 years in prison.
El-Sayed, MP for Nasr City in eastern Cairo, was briefly imprisoned in 1994 for violating building codes and evading fees for the extension of utilities' services to the buildings. Now, he is facing similar charges, notably for depriving the state of millions of pounds in revenue, as well as the forgery of official papers.
Two weeks ago, parliament's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee met to consider a request by Abdel-Wahed to strip El-Sayed of his parliamentary immunity so that he may face trial. The committee, responding to pleas from El-Sayed, decided that he should be required to testify before the court, but not stand trial.
Abdel-Wahed, however, sent a new request, insisting that El-Sayed's immunity be dropped completely. This time, the committee complied. But about 120 deputies organised a sit-in to protest the "surprising speed" at which People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour approved Abdel-Wahed's request.
As for El-Guindi, he was accused of receiving bribes, in the form of cash and presents, worth LE1 million, from the seven other defendants in return for finalising the sale of a 130-feddan piece of land, located along the Cairo-Alexandria desert highway, to the Pyramid Real Estate Company.
The other defendants, including the Pyramid Real Estate Company's owners and board chairman, are accused of offering bribes to El-Guindi.
The intermediary was named as Mohamed Foda, a former private secretary for Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, who is already serving a five-year prison sentence after he was convicted of corruption.
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