Egypt tycoon retracts request to recuse judges in parliament case

Aswat Masriya , Tuesday 22 Sep 2015

This is the second time that Ahmed Ezz has been disqualified from running in parliamentary elections

Mubarak-era politician Ahmed Ezz retracted on Monday a request to change the judges panel in an appeal filed against disqualifying him from running in the coming parliamentary elections.

The Mubarak-era businessman and steel tycoon was excluded last Wednesday from the initial list of approved candidates bidding for a seat in the House of Representatives.

This is the second time Ezz has been rejected by the elections committee. In February he was also excluded for failing to meet the criteria of full financial disclosure before the elections were postponed.

Ezz was the head of the policies secretariat of the now defunct National Democratic Party, the ruling party under Mubarak.

He was tried in several corruption cases and handed prison sentences that were all overturned by Egypt’s Court of Cassation.

He was released in August 2014 after being ordered to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in fines for monopolistic practices.  

Last month, a court upheld a decision to seize the assets of Ezz and his family pending the completion of an investigation into the sources of his wealth. 

Egypt's parliamentary elections are scheduled to begin next month, with the first phase taking place from Oct. 17-19 and the second phase from Nov. 21-23.

 

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