According to the prosecutor-general’s office, El-Amin has been referred to criminal court based on the testimonies of 13 eyewitnesses, the confessions of the victims, the examination of the defendant’s mobile phone, the Forensic Authority’s reports, the National Council of Childhood and Motherhood and the physiological and social research department at the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
The statement issued by the prosecutor-general’s office on the case said that the investigation concluded that the defendant hosted the victims in an orphanage he owned – Upper Egypt's Safe Hands Home for Girls – for the purpose of sexual abuse. The statement added that he exploited their weakness, threatening to expel them from the orphanage if they reported him.
The statement revealed that the testimonies of the eyewitnesses included the girls in the orphanage, officials at the social solidarity ministry and the admin of Missing Children Facebook page.
Rami El-Gebali, the admin of the popular Facebook page specialising in spreading awareness about missing children online, reported El-Amin to the authorities following complaints from the victims he received in December.
According to the prosecutor-general’s office, El-Gebali provided an audio recording of a phone call between him and the victims, where they made the allegations.
The mobile phone of Mohamed El-Amin included a number of photos of the victims, which also proved that he was at the orphanage during the days the girl reported, the prosecution added.
The prosecution has not revealed the ages of the victims. However, the orphanage had 11 girls whose ages ranged from six to 18 when it was inaugurated in March last year, according to a statement by the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
The Safe Hands Home for Girls Orphanage is located in Beni Suef. It was the first in Upper Egypt to house homeless girls and it serves many governorates, the ministry said when Minister Nevine El-Qabbaj attended the orphanage’s inauguration.
In December, the prosecution received a notification from the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood over posts on social media about the alleged assaults that were published on the Missing Children Facebook page.
In early January, Mohamed El-Amin was arrested and detained pending the investigation in the case by the prosecution.
The orphanage was shut down afterwards, according to the Ministry of Social solidarity, and the girls were transferred to another home following El-Amin’s arrest.
El-Amin maintains that he is innocent and was framed by officials at the social solidarity ministry, according to his lawyer Tarek Gamil Said.
A renowned businessman who made his wealth in Kuwait, Mohamed El-Amin became a media mogul following 2011 when he founded and owned a host of private satellite channels, including the CBC group and Modern network.
El-Amin sold his network to the United Media Services several years ago.
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