The Spanish government has approved preliminary legal measures to extradite fugitive businessman Hussein Salem, in accordance with Egyptian requests, said Spanish Ambassador to Cairo Fidel Sendagorta on Wednesday.
Sendagorta attributed the approval to “Madrid’s sympathy with the democratic transformation” in Egypt.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Sendagorta said the preliminary move does not mean the government has approved the extradition, but rather has ordered the judiciary to take initial steps toward extraditing Salem.
The first step is to investigate how Salem obtained Spanish citizenship and whether he obtained it legally, Sendagorta said.
If his citizenship is proven to have been obtained illegally, he would be stripped of it and extradited to Egypt.
Salem will also be tried for money laundering in Spain, the ambassador said.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
