The Giza Criminal Court decided Saturday to adjourn the case against former Tourism Minister Zoheir Garana and fugitive Emirati businessman Hisham al-Hazeq to 17 December.
The court began the case in April 2011 againt Garana, who is accused of seizing 5 million square meters of a state-owned land plot in Ain Sukhna in Suez Governorate. The prosecution alleges that Garana privatized the land for the Naeem Company, owned by Hazeq, at a price of US$1 per meter.
Garana served as tourism minister from January 2006 to January 2011.
During the previous court session, Garrana said that the media published incorrect statements on his behalf, including one saying that he gained LE13 billion in profit from the Ministry of Tourism and that he owns seven aircraft. “If [these allegations are] proved, I’ll give them away to Egypt,” he said of the aircraft.
He asked the court to prove that he had surrendered all his possessions, except for what is stated in the financial disclosure, when he joined the government.
The Cairo Criminal Court had previously sentenced Garana to three years in prison in September 2011 for helping friends to gain unlawful profits. In addition, the Giza Criminal Court sentenced the Garana and three other businessmen on 10 May 2011 to rigorous imprisonment for 5 years and a fine of more than LE293 million on charges of profiteering and “willful damage of public money.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
