Archive for Essam Sultan

Update: Shafiq, Mubaraks and officials to be tried before criminal court, say sources

by admin
September 3rd, 2012

Former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, former President Hosni Mubarak's sons Gamal and Alaa, and the former head of the Cooperative Housing Association for Air Forces Officers General Nabil Farid Shokry will all be tried before the criminal court, sources close to the case told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Monday.

Also today, Shokry was remanded into custody for 15 days pending further investigations into his involvement in the case of illegally appropriated lands in the Bitter Lakes region.

Shokry is accused of profiteering, facilitating the seizure of public funds, deliberately acting against the interests of the Air Force and of forging official documents in collaboration with Shafiq.

Judge Osama al-Saidi, who is presiding over the trial, made the decision to remand Shokry into custody on Monday after the official allegedly pleaded guilty to all charges during an interrogation session with Shafiq, said sources close to the prosecution.

Shokry said that he acted under pressure from Shafiq, who forced him to forge official documents to facilitate the sale of the land.

Former MP and Wasat Party head Essam Sultan filed the charges against Shafiq, who lost the presidential race to President Mohamed Morsy with a four percent margin. Sultan accused Shafiq of squandering public funds by selling a 40,000 square meter plot of land in Ismailia that belonged to the Cooperative Housing Association of Air Force officers at below-market rates to Gamal and Alaa Mubarak, the sons of Egypt's former president.

The sale allegedly took place in 1990s, when Shafiq was the Commander in Chief of the Air Forces.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Former general detained in Shafiq land seizure case

by admin
September 3rd, 2012

Former Air Force General Nabil Farid Shokry has been remanded into custody for 15 days pending further investigations into his involvement, along with former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, in the case of illegally appropriated lands in the Bitter Lakes region.

Shokry is accused of profiteering, facilitating the seizure of public funds, deliberately acting against the interests of the Air Force and of forging official documents in collaboration with Shafiq.

Judge Osama al-Saidi, who is presiding over the trial, made the decision to remand Shokry into custody on Monday after the official allegedly plead guilty to all charges during an interrogation session with Shafiq, said sources close to the prosecution.

Former MP and Wasat Party head Essam Sultan filed the charges against Shafiq, who lost the presidential race to President Mohamed Morsy with a four percent margin. Sultan accused Shafiq of squandering public funds by selling a 40,000 square meter plot of land in Ismailia that belonged to the Cooperative Housing Association of Air Force officers at below-market rates to Gamal and Alaa Mubarak, the sons of Egypt's former president.

The sale allegedly took place in the 90s, when Shafiq was the Commander in Chief of the Air Forces.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Mubarak sons to be questioned over illegal land sale

by admin
August 1st, 2012

Justice Minister Adel Abdel Hamid instructed judge Osama al-Saeedy on Wednesday to begin interrogating Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, the sons of former President Hosni Mubarak, regarding an allegedly illegal land deal.   

The interrogations are part of investigations into a complaint filed Essam Sultan, a Wasat Party MP in the now-dissolved People's Assembly, claiming that former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq squandered state funds during his tenure as aviation minister.

Before its dissolution, the People's Assembly had agreed to forward the complaint to public prosecutors after Sultan unveiled a contract through which, he alleged, Shafiq had sold 40,000 square meters of land allocated to a junior pilot association to the Mubaraks for an unreasonably low rate.

Investigations into the accusations began in late June. Shafiq has denied the allegations.

The Mubarak sons will be interrogated in Tora prison, south of Cairo, where they are being held pending investigations into a separate corruption case.

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Suez Canal officials called as witnesses in Shafiq corruption case

by admin
July 12th, 2012

A judge investigating charges that former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq squandered public funds has decided to call a number of Suez Canal Authority members for questioning in the case.

Shafiq has been accused by former Wasat MP Essam Sultan of selling plots of land in the Bitter Lakes district in Ismailia to Alaa and Gamal Mubarak for less than the market value during his tenure as head of the Pilots Association in 1993.

Judicial sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Thursday that Judge Osama al-Saidi, who was tasked with investigating the complaint, summoned the Suez Canal officials and directors of the land surveying authority in Ismailia and Suez to determine the original owner of the land that was sold to the Mubaraks.

The land had been allocated to the Pilots Association when Shafiq made the sale to the Mubaraks, but sources reported that preliminary investigations indicate that the land originally belonged to the Suez Canal Authority.

Saidi has also been tasked with investigating allegations that ousted President Hosni Mubarak and former Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Youssef Wali seized large areas of land owned by the General Authority for Fish Resources Development and allocated it to the Cooperative Housing Association for Military Pilots.

Sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Saidi is investigating the charges against Shafiq and the charges against Wali and Mubarak together, and hears witness testimony on a daily basis.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Wasat Party head: Shafiq flew to UAE with large amount of uninspected luggage

by admin
June 30th, 2012

Wasat Party vice president and former MP Essam Sultan has accused unnamed entities of being responsible for allowing Ahmed Shafiq, the defeated presidential candidate, to travel to the UAE carrying a cargo estimated at 7,110 kilograms without it being subject to inspection.

Sultan tweeted, “at 3:30 am, June 26, on board Etihad Airways flight 650 bound to Abu Dhabi, an Egyptian citizen flew with luggage [...] with a total weight of 7110 kg. The VIP lounge was opened for the citizen and none of his load was inspected. This citizen was Ahmed Shafiq.”

He pointed out that Hussein Salem, on the run Egyptian businessman with ties to Mubarak, traveled in the same way during the 18-day uprising in early 2011, with a similar load that included €450 million, or about LE4 billion. The prime minister at the time, incidentally, was Shafiq.

Sultan wondered, “Who was the person who allowed both of them to do so? Who ordered the VIP room opened for them? Why the UAE in particular? And who prevents customs officers from doing their work? Noting that, according to the Egyptian law, a passenger is not allowed to travel with more than LE10,000 or US$5,000.”

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Court postpones lawsuits against Parliament dissolution, constitutional supplement

by admin
June 26th, 2012

The Administrative Court on Tuesday decided to delay ruling on lawsuits appealing the dissolution of Parliament and the recently-issued supplementary Constitutional Declaration until 7 and 10 July, respectively.

Former presidential candidate and human rights activist Khaled Ali, The Arab Network for Human Rights Information and the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression had filed a lawsuit before the court against controversial additions to the interim constitution issued by the ruling military council last week that largely diminishes the powers of the country’s elected president.

The same court had also started considering other lawsuits by the speaker of the dissolved People’s Assembly, Mohamed Saad al-Katatny, assembly member Essam Sultan, and lawyer Nizar Ghorab against an earlier ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court which dissolved the assembly, citing the unconstitutionality of the electoral law.

The petitioners challenged the constitutional court’s jurisdiction and the constitutionality of the ruling military’s ensuing decision to dissolve the parliament.

They said denying MPs entry to the assembly’s building was a flagrant breach of their legal rights as representatives of the Egyptian people.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Abouel Fotouh and Wasat Party consider political alliance

by admin
June 21st, 2012

Abul Ela Mady, the leader of the moderate Wasat Party, and former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh are considering a political alliance along with other forces and parties.

Abouel Fotouh and Mady met with Wasat’s deputy leader Essam Sultan, former MP Wahid Abdel Meguid, Nahda Party founder Ibrahim al-Zafarany and Hadara Party leader Hatem Azzam on Thursday for that purpose.

Wasat Party spokesperson Amr Farouk said the meeting seeks a way out of the crisis resulting from the dissolution of Parliament and the supplementary Constitutional Declaration. He declined to comment on the new political alliance.

Edited translation from MENA

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Gheriany heads Constituent Assembly

by admin
June 18th, 2012

 

Hossam al-Gheriany, head of both the Supreme Judicial Council and the Court of Cassation, won the presidency of the Constituent Assembly on Monday.

Gheriany was nominated to the position during the assembly’s first meeting, presided over by Dr. Hassan al-Shafie, representative of Al-Azhar and the eldest of the assembly members.

Assembly members Essam al-Erian, Essam Sultan and Ayman Nour all nominated Gheriany to head the assembly if no other candidates were introduced for the position. Gheriany won with their nomination.

"You have chosen me and I hope you do not regret your choice,” Gheriany said to the assembly after his appointment. “You are living in a decisive moment in the nation's history. I miss faces in the assembly composition who are not in attendance. I hope they do not refuse to be here. This is the time to serve the country, and this is not the time for procrastination in serving the nation,” he continued.

"I am here without any affiliation except my affiliation to the country and to the assembly. I am not here as a representative of the judiciary. In only a few days, I will leave my position in the judiciary. I was never a member of a party, a sect or a club. Please abandon any affiliations besides your loyalty for this country. There has been enough of what happened from 25 January 2011 until yesterday,” Gheriany said.

"This revolution has been stopped by our hands. The promising youth have made a revolution to create a brilliant future for this country, but the old people fought them with flaming words. Some among you might have stopped the revolution from quickly reaching its goals. We are now facing a complementary constitutional declaration that threatens this assembly,” Gheriany continued.

“Either [the assembly] works within a week or it goes. Either it fulfills its task in three months, or it goes,” he said, referring to the potential threat of the Constituent Assembly being disbanded in the wake of the dissolution of Parliament.

Gheriany called upon assembly members not to be constrained by things like time limitations or constitutional declarations.

“We should craft the general outlines of the constitution, delineate the distribution of power in Egypt and define citizens' rights,” he said, adding that the assembly should hold extensive meetings regarding the details of the constitution in order to draft it in agreement with the aspirations of the people.

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Judges accuse political figures of defamation after Mubarak ruling

by admin
June 9th, 2012

 

Hundreds of judges and prosecutors filed reports accusing nearly 30 members of Parliament and other political figures of defamation on Saturday, for their disparagement of last week’s ruling against former President Hosni Mubarak, judicial sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Cairo Criminal Court’s ruling last Saturday sparked anger across the country. Mubarak and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly were both given life sentences, but the former president’s sons, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, and Adly’s top aides were exonerated.

According to the sources, the list of accused includes Essam Sultan, Mohammed El-Beltagy, Hassan al-Brins, Amr Hamzawy, and Ashraf Thabet.

The judges filing the reports demanded “investigation of those persons on charges of insulting the judiciary,” and gave the judges a number of CDs and copies of newspapers as proof.

The accusations, the sources said, come at a time in which the Supreme Judicial Council is already swamped with hundreds of other reports.

In their reports, the judges said that no prominent figures should be immune from law, and that there should be repercussions for “anyone who wants to tamper with the security of the nation.”

 A judicial source said that an attorney general will investigate the accusations.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm. 

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Shafiq campaign boasts he shot down 2 Israeli planes in war

by admin
May 13th, 2012

Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq's campaign boasted on Saturday that the former air force chief had shot down two Israeli planes during war, as it dismissed accusations of corruption.

Shafiq, former President Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister before an uprising toppled the dictator last year, claimed to have downed the planes during the War of Attrition which Egypt declared between 1969 and 1970.

"General Ahmed Shafiq has a great military record and career," his campaign statement said.

"Everyone recognized his achievements, starting with the downing of two Israeli planes during the War of Attrition, when the member of Parliament [who accused Shafiq of corruption] was maybe three years old," it said.

Lawmaker Essam Sultan had accused Shafiq of selling land at below market price to Mubarak's sons, who face trial with their father on corruption charges.

Mubarak also faces murder charges for the deaths of protesters during the revolt that ousted him on 11 February 2011.

Polls show Shafiq at third place in the 23 and 24 May 23 presidential election, which will begin a power transfer by Egypt's military rulers to the elected president.

Mubarak was seen as a close regional ally of Israel, but the main contenders in this month's election say they want to revise a 1979 peace treaty with the Jewish state, which remains unpopular in Egypt.

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