Prosecutor General refers former State Council official to criminal trial over bribery charges

Statement out of the Prosecutor General's office asserts existence of sexual bribes alongside the financial ones

Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek ordered on Sunday the referral of the former State Council official in charge of purchasing, Gamal Ibrahim Al-Laban, and two others to the Criminal Court following accusations of receiving bribes, a state-run media outlet asserted.
The investigations from the Supreme State Security Prosecution noted that the defendant Gamal Al-Laban had exploited his position, receiving bribes to facilitate an auction for the sake of one of the other two defendants' firms.
According to the state-run media outlet, the prosecution confronted the first defendant with information attained through monitoring operations conducted by the Administrative Control Authority (ACA), which included records for the defendant, in which Al-Laban asked for a bribe in return for the auction.
In response to the charges out of the Supreme State Security Prosecution, the defendant Al-Laban said that the quantity of money seized inside his residence is related to an exchange firm that he and his brothers owned, and which has been suspended since 2003.
A statement out of the Prosecutor General ‘s office and circulated throughout several local media outlets indicated that the prosecution investigations proved that Al-Laban and the deceased former Secretary General Wael Shalaby asked the other two defendants for a bribe, estimated at EGP 800,000, and moreover, the statement asserted the presence of a sexual bribe in the incident.
In January, the State Council's former Secretary General Wael Shalaby was found dead after allegedly committing suicide while in custody. Shalaby had been arrested following confessions from of Al-Laban that indicated his involvement in the bribery case.
Sayed Behari, the lawyer of the State Council's former secretary general, told Daily News Egypt then that Shalaby was being held in the headquarters of the ACA when he died. The reasons behind Shalaby's death, the lawyer added, are still unknown; however, his client told him the night before his death that if he could commit suicide, he would.
Recently, in December 2016, Al-Laban was arrested at his residence after the ACA searched his residence. During the search, the ACA seized EGP 24m, $4m, €2m, SAR 1m, and gold accessories, in addition to vehicles and real estate assets.
Following his arrest, the accused official was referred to the State Security Prosecution for investigation after it was asserted that Al-Laban received the sums of money and other valuables through bribery.