Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud referred former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, his former training sector aide, Major General Hassan Abdel Hamid, and the head of Adly’s security guards, Colonel Ahmed Bassel, to Cairo Criminal Court on charges of forcing Interior Ministry recruits to work for them.
The prosecution charged the defendants with “forced labor, intentional damage and seizing of public funds.” According to the investigations, Adly forced nearly 150 recruits to work on two farms owned by him and one owned by Bassel over a three year period.
Investigations conducted by the Supreme State Security Prosecution revealed that a lawyer filed a complaint to the prosecutor stating that Adly took advantage of the recruits by forcing them to work on two private farms in 6th of October City.
According to investigations conducted by the director of the Interior Ministry’s unit investigating corruption, Brigadier General Taha Awad, the complaint was accurate and the recruits have been working for Adly and Bassel for three years, during which they built two villas with two swimming pools for Adly and a third for Bassel.
The prosecution summoned Adly from prison and during questioning he blamed Abdel Hamid, the ninth prosecution witness in the Mubarak case, saying he was responsible for supplying the recruits and that he had believed they were workers from a construction company. He went on to say that he had paid for their services and that he had given the money to Abdel Hamid.
During the investigations, Adly’s defense team said the investigations proved that Abdel Hamid had seized the money for himself. Meanwhile, Abdel Hamid denied the accusations, saying he was not responsible for the incident and that Adly issued the orders, which no one could go against.
During the investigations, which lasted nearly two weeks, Adly paid the recruits nearly LE2.5 million in wages, after Justice Ministry experts calculated their wages in accordance to those received by workers at the Arab Contractors Company.
This Article is an edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
