CAIRO: Authorities detained former prime minister Atef Ebeid for 15 days to investigate allegations he illegally sold land well below market value, judicial sources said on Thursday. Since a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February, Egyptian prosecutors have been investigating corruption allegations made against former officials and businessmen connected with his 30 years in power. Judge Ahmed Edrees, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to investigate corruption in the agriculture ministry, accused Ebeid and Youssef Wali, former agriculture minister, of illegally selling land in Luxor in the south of Egypt. The pair are charged with selling the plot to businessman Hussein Salem, a close confidant to Mubarak, for LE 8 million ($1.3 million) when the value of the land was LE 208 million. The land was also sold illegally because it is a protected nature reserve, Edrees said. Ebeid denied in a five-hour investigation on Thursday responsibility for the deal, blaming it on Wali, sources said. The former prime minister, who was banned from travel out of Egypt on Feb. 23 for other charges, was in office between 1999-2004. He left under increasing pressure from business leaders demanding faster privatization. The public prosecutor in April sequestered funds belonging to Ebeid as part of a probe into alleged squandering of public funds relating to the sale of Assiut Cement, now a local affiliate of Mexican company Cemex. Wali is facing other charges as well. He was the agriculture minister from 1982 to 2004 and is charged with approving the importation of cancer-causing pesticides. Salem, who was arrested in Spain last month on an international warrant, is accused of wasting funds by selling gas to Israel below market prices.
