Former minister of housing Ibrahim Suleiman faces investigation on charges of misappropriating public funds, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Mohamed Ibrahim Suleiman is back in the limelight. The controversial former minister of housing and new communities is to be investigated after the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) and 47 independent and opposition MPs lodged complaints with the prosecutor-general alleging that Suleiman profited from his ministerial post. On 5 January, the People's Assembly Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee agreed that Suleiman, currently a member of parliament for the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), be allowed to testify before prosecution authorities. Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour told MPs that Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud had informed parliament that prosecution authorities were still investigating the complaints lodged against Suleiman and that so far no official accusations of corruption had been made. "It is Suleiman who asked to be allowed to testify so that he can defend himself and clear his reputation," said Sorour. "Suleiman was very agitated when he knew about the complaints filed against him and asked me to allow him to testify." On Tuesday, public funds prosecution office began questioning Suleiman. The ACA's complaint alleges that during his time as minister of housing and new communities between 1993 and 2005 Suleiman allocated valuable plots of land to members of his family, including his wife and three children, in the northern Mediterranean resort of Marina near Alexandria and the southern Cairo district of Qattamiya Heights. "Suleiman allocated an estimated 10,000 square metres of land to his immediate family," says the ACA. "He also gave plots of land to relatives of his wife, a number of prominent businessmen, and several current and former cabinet ministers." The ACA claims Suleiman initially ordered 1,000 square metres of land be allocated to his son, Sherif, to build a villa in Qattamiya, increasing the allocation soon after to 4,500 square metres for which his son paid just LE300 per metre. The same scenario, says ACA, was repeated with Suleiman's daughter Judi. "Suleiman ordered 1,000 square metres in the east Cairo district of Al-Tagammu Al-Khamis to be allocated to his daughter, which was later increased to 2,400 square metres. She was charged just LE300 per metre for land that she sold shortly afterwards to a private real estate investment company for LE1,000 per metre." Mona El-Moniri, Suleiman's wife, received 2,100 square metres in the Al-Tagammu Al-Khamis area at a fraction of its market value, alleges the ACA. "El-Moniri, who refused to pay the hugely discounted price for three years, later sold the land for LE1,000 per metre." The ACA charges that Suleiman also not only approved the allocation of building plots in the northern resort of Marina for his three children but "signed the purchase contracts himself". It is, says the ACA, unclear whether he actually paid. The ACA's 47-page complaint also alleges that Suleiman helped prominent businessmen and cabinet ministers acquire large plots of land in exclusive developments in 6 October governorate, El-Sherouq and New Cairo. Independent and opposition MPs, led by Alaa Abdel-Moneim, have backed up the ACA's complaints. Abdel-Moneim points out that before becoming minister of housing in 1993 Suleiman had taught at university and was the head of a modest engineering firm, yet by the time he left office in 2005 he was "a billionaire, the owner of luxurious villas and chalets in exclusive districts of Cairo and Alexandria". Testifying before the public funds prosecution office on 4 January, Abdel-Moneim said Suleiman had allowed relatives and businessmen to buy land in new communities at knock down prices which they later sold at an enormous profit. "Worse still, some of these businessmen used the land as collateral for loans. In this way, Suleiman and a handful of businessmen profiteered to the tune of millions of pounds, plundering not only public land but also the banks. He repeatedly ordered the allocation of land to his relatives, businessmen, and state officials, without putting the land out to auction so it could acquire the highest price. Suleiman's policies consistently favoured lining his own pockets and those of his family and cronies at the expense of the public purse," Abdel-Moneim said. Prosecution officials said on Saturday that a number of Suleiman's aides when he was minister of housing will be questioned. Gamil Said, Suleiman's lawyer, told reporters on Monday that "there is nothing new about the list of accusations." "Suleiman was thoroughly investigated by the Ministry of Justice- affiliated Agency of Illicit Funds and it found all of the accusations unfounded." Suleiman was last in the headlines in June when Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif appointed him, much to the anger of MPs, as chairman of the government-owned Maritime Petroleum Services Company.
