Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem's lawyer Tarek Abdel Aziz said his client is ready to return 50 percent of his properties both inside and outside of Egypt.
Abdel Aziz said that he has met with Mostafa Al-Husseiny, attorney general at the Public Funds Prosecution, and proposed a reconciliation agreement whereby Salem would return half of his properties. Abdel Aziz added in an interview with CBC satellite channel that Salem would also disclose all properties and assets inside and outside Egypt.
Salem proposed a reconciliation agreement six months ago, according to Abdel Aziz, despite a ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court saying he couldn't be extradited to Egypt. Salem, a close ally to deposed president Hosni Mubarak, fled the country to Spain in February 2011 following the January uprising that toppled Mubarak. In Decemeber, Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled against an earlier decision to allow Salem's extradition to Egypt after accepting his appeal.
In June, Salem, along with Mubarak, was acquitted of corruption charges in Egypt’s natural gas export deal with Israel. He was, however, sentenced to 15 years in March for a corrupt land deal.
Egyptian authorities have recently begun to accept reconciliation agreements with former officials, lifting charges in return for recovering stolen assets.
Earlier this month, the Public Funds Prosecution agreed to drop charges against former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif in exchange for him repaying funds he illegally received in the form of gifts from the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper.
The Public funds Prosecution said it has retrieved around LE1 billion of illegally acquired money from former officials.
