People's Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny decided Sunday to refer corruption allegations against presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafiq to the attorney general. The accusations were included in a motion submitted by MP Essam Sultan of the moderate Islamist Wasat Party. During the assembly's session Sunday, Sultan said he has a sales contract for a 40,038-meter-wide lot of land located near Murra Lake (Great Bitter Lake), located east of Cairo. Sultan said Shafiq sold the land to the sons of toppled President Hosni Mubarak, Alaa and Gamal, for 75 piasters per meter, even though the state had allocated it for the Junior Pilots Cooperative Association, over which Shafiq has presided since 1993. Sultan added that no public servant has been allowed to inspect the work of that association or access its data. The MP, who presented a photocopy of the alleged contract during the session, also claimed that the sale enabled Shafiq to rapidly advance in his career, becoming Air Force chief, aviation minister and later prime minister. He also accused authorities of deliberately removing Shafiq's name from all accusations handled by investigation bodies. A Parliament-issued law signed by the ruling military council would have denied certain Mubarak-regime figures, including Shafiq, their political rights. But the Presidential Elections Commission referred the bill to the Supreme Constitutional Court to decide on its constitutionality, allowing the former minister to continue running. Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
