Ex-PM Shafiq, three daughters to stand trial on corruption charges

Ahram Online, Tuesday 19 Feb 2013

Mubarak's last prime minister to face trial for illegal land seizure

Shafick
Ahmed Shafik (Photo: Reuters)

Egyptian prosecutors have referred former prime minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq, his three daughters and 10 other accomplices to trial for embezzling public funds in the 'pilots housing' case.

Ahmed Shafiq and his daughters are being accused of seizing land that belonged to fish farms and illegally allocating it to the Pilots' Association for Land Development, which he headed.

Shafiq's lawyer, Hesham Mourad, said that Judge Osama El-Saidi, the prosecutor in charge of the case, had no "legal" right to refer the case to the criminal court, as his right to oversee the case was rejected in a previous decision by Egypt's court of appeal. Mourad claimed that the decision is "political."

El-Seidi, a justice ministry investigator, was mandated to investigate a report presented by the state-run watchdog Illicit Profiteering and Real Estate Agency, which is accusing Shafiq of illegally allocating land.

Shafiq, a former air force commander, left Egypt after losing last year's presidential election to the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi.

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