A source from the Spanish Embassy in Cairo said that the embassy has no information about Egyptian fugitive businessman Hussein Salem, who was arrested on Wednesday in Spain. The embassy not involved in communication between Cairo and Madrid about the issue, the source said. Meanwhile, Menha Bakhoum, the official spokesperson of Egypt's Foreign Ministry, said that the ministry has asked Spain to extradite Salem, through a diplomatic pouch sent to the Egyptian Embassy in Madrid. "The embassy gets information [about Salem] from the Spanish media, more specifically from El País newspaper," the Spanish diplomatic source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Al-Masry Al-Youm, pointing out that Egypt and Spain are communicating through Interpol. Meanwhile, a medical source said on Saturday that Salem was hospitalized in Spain due to heart problems. Spanish police refused to comment on Salem's health. Spanish authorities set two separate bails amounting to 27 million euros. Salem was arrested along with his son Khaled and Turkish businessman Ali Usain. The Spanish Supreme Court said that the three defendants face charges of money laundering, fraud, bribery and corrupt international business deals. The Spanish authorities froze more than 42.5 million euros of Salem's assets. MENA, the Egyptian state news agency, reported that Salem obtained Spanish nationality eight days before Hosni Mubarak was ousted from the presidency. Translated from the Arabic Edition
