CAIRO - A top aide to former president Hosni Mubarak has been taken to a hospital in Spain after being arrested on an international warrant for alleged corruption, a medical source said Saturday. Hussein Salem, a businessman accused of squandering Egyptian public funds by selling gas to Israel below market prices, was admitted for heart problems on Friday, a day after his arrest, a judicial source said. The hospital declined to comment on Salem's condition. The official Middle East News Agency (MENA) said on Thursday that Salem, who also holds Spanish citizenship, had fled the country on February 3, eight days before Mubarak was forced to step down Spain set separate bails of 12 million euros ($17.2 million) and 15 million euros for Salem, who was arrested along with a son, Khaled Salem and Turkish businessman Ali Evsen. Khaled Abou Bakr, an Egyptian lawyer who is a member of the International Union for Lawyers, said the Egyptian prosecutors had to appeal the decision to free Salem on bail. "Chief Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud should appeal his (Salme's) release. This can take place through specialised lawyers from Spain," Abou Bakr said. He added that the Egyptian authorities should pressure Spain and insist on Salem's extradition. Spain's High Court said the three faced charges of money laundering, fraud, bribery and corruption in international trade transactions. Spanish authorities have frozen $45 million in the accounts of business tycoon Hussein Salem last week. The Egyptian authorities have sent a request to Spain to extradite Salem over to Cairo so that he can stand trial on charges of corruption and money laundering. For now, the two proceedings will go ahead simultaneously. At some point, a decision will be made as to which takes precedence. The BBC reported it was not clear how the charges brought against Salem in Spain would affect Egypt's wish to try him this summer along with Mubarak and his two sons, or the fact that he holds both Spanish and Egyptian passports.
