Former MP during Muslim Brotherhood tenure detained for excavating for, dealing in antiquities

CAIRO - 25 June 2021: Security forces arrested a former lawmaker for leading a gang involved in excavating for and dealing in antiquities. The prosecution ordered his detention for four days pending investigation.

The prosecution said it also detained 17 members of the gang he led for four days after they were caught red-handed while possessing 201 artifacts.

Security authorities in Cairo had received information that a gang was excavating for antiquities in different areas, and collecting and dealing in them.

The authorities revealed that former member of parliament Alaa Hasanein, who was previously charged in four cases, was leading the gang by providing funds for the excavation works nationwide.

The gang members were arrested in possession of 201 artifacts, two wooden tablets with hieroglyphic inscriptions, 36 statues of different sizes from 8 cm to 40 cm, four ushabti busts, an alabaster statute, a 40-cm wooden statue, two bronze statues, a head of a small-sized statue made of bronze and a wooden statue.

All legal measures were taken against the suspects.

The law stipulates that the punishment is an imprisonment for a period of no less than three years and not exceeding seven years, and a fine of not less than five hundred thousand pounds and not more than one million pounds for everyone who commits any of the following acts:

1- Demolishing or deliberately damaging a movable or immovable antiquity, deforming it, changing its features, or intentionally separating part of it.

2 - Carrying out excavation works with the intention of obtaining antiquities without a license, and in this case the excavation site is reserved until the Council conducts excavation work at the expense of the perpetrator.

MENA contributed to the reporting.