More officials from the ousted Mubarak regime are facing trial on corruption charges At the beginning of this year, then prime minister Ahmed Nazif stressed that his government was the one that best served the interests of the poor and underprivileged classes, reports Gamal Essam Eddin. However, on 17 April, Nazif, along with Habib El-Adli and Youssef Boutros Ghali, former ministers of the interior and finance, respectively, in the ousted Mubarak regime were referred for trial on charges of squandering LE92 million of public money and illegal profiteering. Nazif and the two ex-ministers are accused of awarding a contract to the German company Utsch to supply licence plates for the country's cars in 2008 without opening up the deal to competitive bidding. Ghali is alleged to have personally seen the deal through by meeting with a representative of the German company. Interviewed by prosecutors on Sunday, Nazif said he knew nothing about the contract and that the deal had been overseen by Ghali. Ghali left Egypt for Europe before the resignation of former president Hosni Mubarak on 11 February, and he has since been labelled a fugitive from justice by Egyptian prosecution authorities. Nazif is being held in Tora Prison south of Cairo, while El-Adli is on trial on charges relating to the deaths of demonstrators during the 25 January Revolution. Both Nazif and Ghali are considered to have been driving forces behind implementing the privatisation programme in place in the country before the January Revolution, and both men were close associates of Gamal Mubarak, younger son of former president Hosni Mubarak. The prosecution authorities said that the contract in question had been awarded to the German company Utsch even though an expert committee that included members of Ain Shams University's Faculty of Engineering had recommended that the Utsch plates not be used on grounds of cost. Locally made plates were cheaper and of good quality, the committee held, which has added that the contract "cost the treasury LE92 million, causing people wanting to get a driving licence to pay higher fees." Utsch issued a statement on 18 April strongly denying any wrongdoing. "To our knowledge, all the requirements of Egyptian law were observed," said Helmut Jungbluth, the company's chief executive, adding that "the contract price matched the market level." Utsch had not seen the indictment papers for the Egyptian officials concerned, he said. The company's website describes Utsch as the global market leader in automotive licence plates, saying that the 2008 contract with Egypt was the largest single order in the company's history. Meanwhile, investigation by prosecution authorities and the Ministry of Justice's Illicit Gains Office (IGO) into the wealth and alleged corruption of ex-Mubarak regime officials and businessmen has continued unabated. On 14 April, Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud ordered that both Ahmed Heikal, chairman of Citadel and elder son of journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, and former prime minister Atef Ebeid, be banned from travel pending investigation into alleged corruption in Egypt's privatisation programme. Ebeid is accused of helping Heikal's Citadel Company to buy the Helwan Portland Cement Company at an artificially low price. The IGO has also decided to freeze the assets of the family of the late Kamal El-Shazli, a former minister of parliamentary affairs and a stalwart of the former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Reports from the Administrative Control Agency (ACA) have stressed that throughout his long career in the NDP, El-Shazli was able to peddle influence to accumulate a vast fortune in the shape of real estate and bank deposits. The ACA has recommended that assets inherited by El-Shazli's wife, two sons and daughter now be frozen. On 19 February, the IGO also questioned Aisha Abdel-Rahman, a former minister of manpower, and Hatem El-Gabali, a former minister of health. Abdel-Rahman and El-Gabali were released pending investigation into their wealth. Abdel-Rahman is charged with accumulating bank deposits and real estate assets in the Red Sea tourist resorts of Hurghada and Marsa Allam, and according to ACA reports El-Gabali accumulated wealth of LE12 billion after he was appointed minister of health in 2005. Also on 17 April, Zahi Hawass, the minister of state for antiquities affairs, was sentenced to a year in jail after he refused to implement a court decision in a land dispute. The court also fined him LE10,000, more than $1,600, in damages. Hawass said he would appeal against the ruling, saying that the sentence would be suspended until the appeal. Prosecution authorities have also resumed investigation of a number of former senior officials from the Mubarak regime for their alleged roles in masterminding what has come to be called the "Battle of the Camel", organised on 2 February to attack pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir Square and employing armed thugs and Molotov cocktails. Former parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour is said to have been questioned earlier this week over allegations that he played a role in hiring thugs from his electoral district of Al-Sayeda Zeinab in Cairo to attack the protesters. Ibrahim Kamel, a businessman and former NDP stalwart close to Mubarak's younger son Gamal, was remanded in custody on 19 April for 15 days pending investigation of his alleged role in funding the attacks. Mohamed Abul-Enein, another NDP business tycoon and former MP, and Hussein Megawer, chair of the Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions, will also be questioned later this week on similar allegations.
