CAIRO - For four detained ex-top officials, el-Mazraa Prison on the outskirts of Cairo will be a no return to the splendours of ministerial or business powers they have enjoyed under the former regime. The alleged graft charges against these officials have put each one of them in a windowless jail cell, where they will remain in custody for 15 days pending further interrogations. The fallen Habib el-Adly and Ahmed el-Maghrabi, the ex-ministers of interior and housing respectively, who have been referred to the criminal court for trial, still have not forgotten their good old days in office, a prison guard has said. "El-Adly and el-Maghrabi, along with Ahmed Ezz, the steel mogul, and ex-tourism minister Zoheir Garranah have not forgotten their luxurious life even when they came to prison. They asked the prison officials to provide each one of them with a comfortable room with a private shower, a coffee-maker and television offering a range of satellite channels ��" including some from Egypt," the guard, who asked not to be identified, added. Ahmed Ezz asked for a laptop and that the floor of his cell be refurbished with new ceramic tiles, another guard said. "All of their demands were rejected," he added. Since Thursday night, the four men have been housed in an isolated wing of the Mazraa Prison, where they share shower cubicles and toilets with the other inmates under heavy security presence, a third guard said. He said that each one of them has been kept in an ordinary cell that has four bare walls, bed and table that greet most inmates, he confirmed. "El-Mazraa Prison has no wing dubbed ‘Sheraton or Hilton'. The four detainees are like all inmates who should be treated like their colleagues," the guard said, adding that an arrogant Adly was reproached and rebuked for sitting cross-legged while being questioned by the prison director," a fourth guard said. “El-Adly wanted el-Mazraa to move up to near hotel standards for himself and his three colleagues,” he said. “The facility is a remand centre not a prison," said tribunal spokesman Jim Landale. "These four ex-officials are innocent until proved otherwise," Ibrahim Nour, a Cairo-based lawyer, told The Gazette by phone, adding that they are now fixed in the local media's gaze and facing four counts of crimes for their alleged roles in a decade of corruption. El-Adly, el-Maghrabi,Garranah were detained on suspicion of negligence, money laundering, diverting public funds, and profiteering while they were assuming their ministerial posts. The four men were arrested a day after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as Egypt's president on Feb 11. According to Nour, the prosecutors ordered that the three ex-ministers and Ezz be held for 15 days at el-Mazraa Prison to assist in investigations into corruption. They have also charged Ezz with being behind the widespread fraud that marred parliamentary elections that were held last November The four detainees from the former Nazif Government are housed in a purpose-built prison complex on the outskirts of Cairo. It has a courtyard that is just outside the main gate. A separate area has been requisitioned by the prison authorities to cope with the overspill as the number of ex-officials is expected to increase, the guards said. The prison is ready for the new comers, who can expect a standard three-by two-metre cells, like the ones occupied by El-Adly, el-Maghrabi,Garranah and Ezz. The four officials' daily ritual begins with breakfast before the cell doors are opened early in the morning after which they are free to roam the courtyard for an hour, the guards said. They are allowed to have a daily allowance, which they can spend in the detention centre's cafeteria to buy food and cigarettes, which are the most popular items. All inmates are allowed an hour's fresh air in the exercise yard outside, the guards said, confirming that there is no mixing between the four officials and ordinary prisoners, who include businessmen and politicians. "They mix with each other. But, they have been deliberately separated from other inmates lest they should be physically attacked by them," a prison official said, adding that the guards are trained to look for any problem signs.
