File photo: Ahmed Ezz, a senior leader in former President Hosni Mubarak's party and chairman of Ezz Steel, arrives in a police vehicle outside the court in north Cairo February 23, 2011 (Photo: Reuters)
Egypt's Criminal Court upheld Saturday the decision of the Illicit Gains Authority (IGA) to freeze the assets of Mubarak-era business tycoon Ahmed Ezz and his family.
A travel ban will be resumed.
Earlier this year, the court struck down an appeal by the IGA to block access of the family to the assets and reimpose a travel ban previously imposed on them.
According to the new court decision, Ezz and his family will remain under government oversight, except a sole property located in Cairo’s upscale Zamalek district belonging to one of Ezz’s wives.
Ezz — who remains in prison — was secretary-general of Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party prior to the 2011 revolution and was a close associate of the former president's son, Gamal Mubarak.
Ezz is to be retried on a number of corruption charges, including money laundering, illegally procuring steel production licenses, receiving unmerited benefits from Egypt’s Industrial Modernisation Centre, and squandering public funds.
Since he was arrested in 2011, Ezz has been sentenced to 60 years in prison on combined charges. However, his appeals were accepted in many of the cases, for which he will face retrials.
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