4 former Al-Ahram CEOs refereed to court over ‘gifts’ lawsuit

CAIRO - 1 August 2017: Four former CEOs for the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper were referred to Cairo Criminal Court, Monday by the Attorney General Nabil Sadiq for charges of squandering public funds in the case known publicly as ‘Al-Ahram gifts.’

Ibrahim Nafea, Morsi Atallah, Salah al-Ghamri and Abdel Moneim al-Saeed are accused of paying LE 268 millions (14.9 million) from the newspaper budget as gifts for the former President Hosni Mubarak, his family and other former officials affiliated to his regime.

The case was raised originally at 2011 with a list of 300 defendants, 278 were acquitted during the investigations after revealing that they have received the gifts with “good intentions“ for no interests in return from the CEOs, others have reconciled with the state after paying back the gifts prices, including Mubarak.

In January 2013, Mubarak paid back LE 18 million to the state as reconciliation for the gifts, he and his family members received before 2011, during the period of the four former CEOs.

The case, however, is still ongoing for the rest of the defendants including, Nafea, Atallah, al- Ghamri, and Saeed.

On March 2, Egypt’s top appeals court issued a final verdict acquitting Mubarak of charges of collusion to kill protesters during the January 25 Revolution in 2011 that ultimately toppled him from power after three decades.

Similarly, the former president, along with his two sons, already served a term of three years in prison over charges of Presidential Palaces embezzlement and wasting public money in 2016.