The prosecutor general referred on Thursday a business associate of former President Hosni Mubarak and a number of officials who served under the ousted leader for trial on charges of graft.
Hussein Salem, who lives in Spain and has ties to the Mubarak family, his two children Khaled and Magda Salem, and 11 officials who held posts at Alexandria Petroleum Company and Amerya Petroleum Refining Company in 1999 are facing charges of profiteering and fraud.
A report filed with the Alexandria Public Funds Prosecution alleges the contracts between the two companies and Midor Electricity Company, co-owned by Salem and his children, violated the law. After a regulatory authority reviewed the contracts and heard witness testimony, investigators determined that Salem had illegally obtained permission to provide electricity to the two companies. The deal allegedly earned him LE36 million but resulted in losses for the state-owned firms.
Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah has ordered the seizure of Salem's assets and those of his children, their spouses and their underage children. The Salem family is also Egypt's travel watch list.
Spain's highest court overturned last month an earlier decision to extradite Salem, who said in his appeal that the charges against him are politically motivated. Another court also rejected requests to extradite his children.
In June, Salem, along with Mubarak, was acquitted of corruption in relation to Egypt’s natural gas export deal with Israel. He was, however, sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in March for a corrupt land deal.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
