Torah prison loses one leading businessman inmate only to gain another, Gamal Essam El-Din reports Giza's Criminal Court acquitted businessman Hossam Abul-Fotouh of fraudulently obtaining loans of LE1.4 billion from Banque du Caire. In Thursday's ruling the court noted Abul- Fotouh had already repaid LE1 billion to Banque du Caire and "has adequate collateral to cover the remaining LE400 million". In the late 1990s Abul-Fotouh was the Egyptian agent for BMW. At the time large public sector banks were encouraging businessmen to take out loans. "There was a high level of liquidity so the banks went out of their way to help big businessmen obtain loans under easy terms," said the court. "It is not Abul-Fotouh's fault that he responded to the bank's own policy." Nor, noted the court, had the case been brought by Banque du Caire: "The case against Abul-Fotouh was initiated following a complaint filed by a policeman who alleged that Abul-Fotouh had obtained loans without offering adequate collateral. This has proved to be untrue." The businessman is no stranger to the courts, having been embroiled in several cases since 2000. Abul-Fotouh's lawyer, Farid El-Deeb, says that in addition to the Banque du Caire case -- Abul-Fotouh was sentenced in 2006 to 10 years in jail but the Court of Cassation overturned the sentence in June 2007 and ordered a re-trial -- his client was acquitted of charges of smuggling wire- tapping equipment and of running a pornographic studio. In 2003, Abul- Fotouh was found guilty of possessing an unlicensed weapon and served five years in jail. Al-Deeb expressed hopes that Abul-Fotouh would be able to settle the remaining LE400 million in loans to Banque du Caire in time to spend the Eid Al-Fitr holiday with his family. The same day Abul-Fotouh was acquitted Adel Andrawes, the chairman of the Court of Cassation, referred construction magnate Hisham Talaat Mustafa to trial beginning 18 October on charges of complicity in the murder of Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim. Mustafa is accused of commissioning security officer and bodyguard Mohsen El-Sukkari to kill Tamim in return for $2 million. Mustafa has been detained in Cairo's Torah jail pending trial, the same jail as Abul-Fotouh's, and has now engaged El-Deeb to head his own defence. In an interview with the state- owned weekly Akhbar Al-Yom El-Deeb claimed it would be simple to prove his new client's innocence. Reports about Mustafa's case, he said, have "been exaggerated and sometimes unfounded". El-Deeb stresses that Mustafa did not have a strong motive to incite El-Sukkari to murder Tamim. "Mustafa loved Tamim and was planning to marry her but his family objected," said El-Deeb. "If it was natural for Tamim, after the family's rejection, to look for another man to marry, it is far from logical that Mustafa should try to kill her because of this." El-Deeb dismissed reports that Tamim had withdrawn up to $30 million from Swiss bank accounts held by Mustafa, and cast doubt on El-Sukkari's evidence. "El-Sukkari's confessions are contradictory," argued El-Deeb, adding that "El-Sukkari said first that Mustafa hired him to kill Tamim but later he denied this, alleging that Mustafa had asked him just to frame her by placing drugs in her flat." Leading lawyer Shawqi El-Sayed, an appointed member of the Shura Council retained by Mustafa's family, was expected to represent the building tycoon but appears to have objected to El-Deeb's being brought into the defence. "I have been the family's lawyer since 1999 but I told Mustafa that I could not take this case because of a lack of coordination with other lawyers defending him," said El-Sayed. This week Mustafa denied for the first time that he paid El-Sukkari $2 million to kill Tamim. In a letter sent to Akhbar Al-Yom he accused "enemies of success" of fabricating the case against him. "In prison I face an awful injustice but reading the Quran in the holy month of Ramadan helps relieve some of my pain," Mustafa wrote. He went on to accuse newspapers and magazines, many belonging to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of which he is a prominent member, of judging his case before it goes to trial. "These lies will not be able to obliterate the great pyramids I have constructed in the Egyptian economy," Mustafa said. "Those who are tearing my flesh do not ask themselves whether it is reasonable for a man who boasts of such achievements to commit this brutal murder and destroy the reputation of his family in such a crazy way."
