Madinaty new town on the outskirts of Cairo
Around 4,000 employees and homeowners gathered to protest outside the State Council early on Tuesday in anticipation of a court decision on the $3 billion Madinaty real estate project. The court announced during the day that its ruling has been postponed to 22 November.
The Council's Administrative Court was due to consider an appeal submitted by Hamdy El-Fakharany demanding the new Madinaty contract, which was drafted according to the orders of former president Hosni Mubarak, be declared null.
The project has become mired in legal disputes because the Mubarak regime sold the land directly to TMG and not through a public auction as the law stipulates. The land is also reported to have been sold at much less than its true market value. In a landmark ruling, the court ruled in favour of El-Fakharany last year, but the Cabinet later returned the land to TMG, saying that it was in the national interest to do so.
But the fate of the new contract, now being contested in the court, has been unclear since an uprising swept out Hosni Mubarak and his inner circle from power on 11 February.
Workers at the project are worried of the repercussions for their jobs should the contract be declared null. Homeowners fear they could lose the properties they have already purchased from TMG.
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