Businessman Wagih Siag said the ruling of the International Arbitration Center in Washington on the land plot in Sinai is final and cannot be appealed, noting that it is better for the Egyptian government to pay the 134 million dollar compensation (LE 737 million) that was levied than the 400 million dollars (LE 2 billion) that we had asked for. In exclusive statements to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Siag said that Dr. Ahmed Kamal Aboul Magd made a great effort to avoid Egypt paying a higher amount in the arbitration, which is why the basic compensation was only set for $ 74 million, plus interest and litigation expenses. He said: "My lawyers will take the necessary action to implement the arbitration. I think the government will be forced to carry it out. It has only one month to pay." He added: "Hussein Salem, the man who benefited from the land and the project on it, should be the one who pays the compensation. For why should the government give him the land for free and also pay the compensation? It is a farce." He continued: "The government spent about 5 million dollars (27 million pounds) on the arbitration from the money of the citizens, while I spent 8 million dollars to retrieve my right." Siag said that what Mufid Shehab, Minister of Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils, and some other government officials said about the cancellation of the project for reasons of national security was a lie, as another adjacent project called 'Nile Valley' and belonging to Khaled Foda was also stopped, though he did not deal with the Israelis. "Khaled is unable to get back his rights or resort to arbitration because he has no other nationality than the Egyptian," he explained. He continued: "Our government does not respect the provisions of the judiciary. How can an investor or an ordinary citizen then feel safe? What are the guarantees that we have in Egypt for a citizen to get his rights?"
Wagih Siag and his mother had filed a lawsuit against the Egyptian government on August 5, 2005 over a disputed land plot to be developed for a tourism project in Sinai. They said Egypt violated the foreign investment law it had signed, which gives foreign investors more advantages than local investors.
