Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem – who has been on the run since last February – was detained in Spain on Thursday on an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol and is set to be deported to Egypt to stand trial.
“Hussein Salem is detained in Spain. He has been arrested in his villa at Majorca and we will send all the documents to the Spanish authorities in order to bring him back to Egypt to face trial,” Major General Magdy El-Shafie, Director General of the Egyptian Interpol told Egyptian state agency MENA on Thursday.
Salem is facing several accusations of bribery, corruption, squandering public money, and winning lucrative land and other major deals, including gas exports to Isrea, because of his connections to the Mubaraks. He has also been accused of handing over substantial kickbacks to the Mubarak family, including their Sharm El-Sheikh villas, which allegedly Hussein Salem sold them at well below market price.
Mubarak, for his part, gave Salem the lucrative natural gas export deal with Israel.
The 77-year old – who is one of Egypt’s most secretive businessmen – left Cairo on 3 February, just a few days before the fall of the regime, and has been on the run since then.
~al-ahram-cairo~
