New documents have revealed that the Housing Ministry under former minister Ibrahim Soliman, now facing profiteering charges, granted a Saudi Arabian princess ten acres of land to be paid for in installments. The princess had acquired the land in Al-Kawthar district to build villas for other Saudi princesses. She later sold it to Egyptian buyers, prompting the ministry to withdraw the grant under Soliman’s successor, Ahmed el-Maghrabi.
In October 2005, a few months before Soliman was dismissed, Fouad Mohamed, vice-president of the Egyptian Authority for New Urban Communities, sent a letter to the head of the New Cairo Municipality, informing him that an unnamed authority had approved the land grant to Saudi Princess Zeinab bint Nami bin Shahin, wife of Prince Abdel Mohsen bin Abdel Aziz el-Saud.
After the acquisition, Princess bint Shahin sold parts of the land in 2006 to Egyptian nationals. As a result the ministry confiscated her land in October 2007, while El-Maghrabi was minister.
The Egyptians involved in the land purchases filed a lawsuit before the State Council against the Housing Ministry’s decision.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
