La Vanguardia, a daily Spanish newspaper, published the details of the arrest of fugitive Egyptian businessman, Hussein Sallem Wednesday on charges of committing "economic crimes inside and outside Spain".
"The national court in Spain, which is the High Criminal Court, issued a warrant to arrest Hussein Sallem whom it has been watching for some time and noticed that he was trying to smuggle large sums of money," said Eduardo MartÃn de Pozuelo, an investigative journalist with La Vanguardia, adding that authorities in Spain decided to arrest him quickly, as well as his son and partner, before he could flee.
He said authorities found 32.5 million euro in Sallem's Mallorca residence, and that the Spanish attorney general decided to freeze his assets, worth 40 million euro. Sallem has had ties with former President Hosni Mubarak since the ousted leader's early years in power.
"The attorney general knows that there are investigations carried out in Cairo on Sallem, but he has not received thus far a request to extradite him to Cairo," Pozuelo said, adding that Sallem is accused of crimes in Spain and must be tried there first.
There is no criminal extradition agreement between the two countries, he said, which would make it difficult to extradite Sallem if Egypt does make the request.
One of Sallem's companies is allegedly involved in Egypt's controversial gas export deal with Israel.
Director General of the Egyptian Interpol Magy al-Shafie said he is coordinating now with the attorney general's counsel, Hisham al-Drandaly, to send a file to Spanish authorities regarding the extradition.
Shafie said the Spanish judiciary will consider the case and determine whether to hand Sallem over to Egypt. He added that Sallem, an ex-Egyptian army and intelligence officer who received Spanish nationality in 2008, was originally headed to Romania when he left Egypt.
Shafie said that Interpol is playing a major role in the pursuit of Egypt's fugitive former officials. It is currently following Hussein Sagwany and Wahid Attalla, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, Youssef Boutros Ghali, and Yassin Mansour, he said, and a bulletin has been circulated on the wanted men in 188 countries in coordination with public security and immigration authorities.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
