Public funds prosecution issued an arrest warrant on Monday for Ibrahim Seada, former chairman of Akhbar al-Youm, in the latest development in the gifts case involving Al-Akhbar Al-Youm Institution for Journalism.
On learning that Seada is currently outside Egypt, the prosecution also ordered that his name be placed on a watch list.
Seada faces accusations of facilitating the acquisition of public money, by giving many public personalities and figures of the former regime expensive annual gifts from the funds of the institution.
It is also expected that the prosecution will summon former chairman of the institution, Mohamed Ahdy Fadly, from his prison cell within a few days, to face similar charges.
According to the prosecution, a number of state-owned press and media institutions, also including al-Ahram, were accustomed to giving expensive gifts, amounting to dozens of millions of pounds, to senior former regime figures, including the family members of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, former chief of the president’s office Zakariya Azmy, and several other ministers.
The gifts granted by the institution include valuable watches, gold pens, gold pounds, expensive neckties, diamond jewelry and leather bags.
Seada was born in 1937 in Port Said, and studied political economy in Switzerland. He was hired as a reporter for Akhbar al-Youm in Geneva. He was promoted several times until be became chairman of the board. He was known for his ties with the dissolved National Democratic Party.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
