The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Friday that a Spanish court has ruled to hand over convicted businessman Hussein Salem and his son Khaled to the Egyptian authorities.
Salem is one of the most prominent symbols of the former Mubarak regime and has been in Spain since the 18-day uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak early last year. On Thursday, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a corruption case, along with former Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and former Agriculture Minister Youssef Wally. Ebeid and Wally were each sentenced to ten years.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Amr Rushdie said in a statement Friday that the Spanish prosecutor called Egypt's ambassador in Madrid, Ayman Zain Eddin, earlier in the day to inform him that a Spanish court had ruled to extradite Salem and his son. Rushdie said that the court is still considering the situation of Salem's daughter, Magda.
A close friend of Mubarak, Salem fled to Spain during Egypt's 25 January uprising last year. After Mubarak's resignation, Egypt called on Interpol to arrest Salem for charges of bribery, abuse of power and squandering public money.
He was then monitored by the Spanish government, which eventually found evidence implicating him in money laundering in Spain. On 10 October, the Spanish secretary of state announced that Spain intended to hand over Salem to Egyptian authorities for his trial on corruption charges.
Salem also is being tried by the Cairo Criminal Court, in the same trial as Mubarak, on corruption charges. The court is scheduled to issue a verdict in that case on 2 June.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
