Court acquits businessman Salah Diab

Cairo - 18 September 2017: Giza Criminal Court acquitted businessman Salah Diab in the case where he was accused of possessing two automatic rifles and seven bullets without license.

Diab is a well-known businessman and Chairman of PICO Group Companies.

Diab was referred to a criminal court on charges of possessing unlicensed firearms and ammunition in his villa near October 2016, Youm7 reported.

South Giza prosecution referred the owner of al-Masry al-Youm newspaper after investigations into the case.

Diab and his son Tawfik were released Nov. 11 on bail. They had been detained Nov. 8 and the weapons were seized during a search.

Egypt’s Attorney-General Nabil Sadek ordered Nov. 6 that the assets of 18 businesspersons be frozen. They include business tycoon Diab and his wife, Gamal Mubarak’s father-in-law Mahmoud al-Gammal and his wife and minor daughter, and members of other families.

The defendants have not been ordered detained thus far, but they face several charges including purchasing a large piece of land in 6 October City to construct a luxurious New Giza compound at a below-market price.

After an earlier decision to freeze all the assets of the defendants, Cairo Criminal Court ordered that they be stripped of control over the compound.

Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture are accused of selling swathes of lands allocated to agricultural reclamation on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road to the businessmen at cheap prices.

The land was bought before President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011.