By Moustafa Salah and Wafaa Abdel Bari
Judicial sources within the Illicit Gains Authority have said that a schedule is to be put together soon to end the problem of embezzlement of Egyptian funds. The authority plans on addressing the problem in co-operation with the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and European Union countries to which money has been embezzled.
Dr Hesham Qandil’s cabinet began to shed light on the problem and make efforts to recover embezzled funds. President Mohamed Morsy had issued instructions to address the problem quickly because of its impact on the state’s treasury.
Sources added that the appointed committee in charge of recovering the embezzled funds would pay official visits to a number of European countries in order to co-ordinate with and persuade them to allow Egypt to recover the money. The Egyptian authorities issued a resolution to impound the stolen funds, with the government hoping to recover the money by the year’s end.
On the other hand, Reformist Judge Abul Moneim Amin, Director of the Technical Office at the State Lawsuits Authority, said the authority would not take action to recover embezzled funds until a court order is issued.
They Attorney General passed a resolution to lift the freeze on money belonging to Rashid Mohamed Rashid, former Minister of Trade and Industry. The funds were frozen as part of a case involving the waste of public funds among glass companies.
In a statement yesterday, the Attorney General, Abdul Mageed Mahmoud, stressed that Rashid sought re-conciliation in this case, as the law permits re-conciliation in several similar criminal proceedings such as this case. Accordingly, the freeze on the funds was lifted with no effect on the other ongoing cases and investigations in which the former minister’s funds are frozen. The former Minister has already been convicted in a number of cases.
Saber Abdel Sadek, Member of Freedom and Justice Party’s governing body, said that they accept settlements with several businessmen from the former regime who have yet to be convicted, but that a neutral committee should be appointed to arrive at a just settlement.
Abdel Sadek added that in the next parliament, the FJP would seek to legislate procedures for settlements with businessmen in cases that have yet to be decided.
