Counselor Mohamed Hussein Wahba, the lawyer for businessman Ayman Al-Gamil, who is implicated in the “Ministry of Agriculture” corruption case, confirmed that the penalties imposed on his client in the “major bribery” case will be lifted.
During a phone interview with journalist Youssef Al-Husseini on the “Al-Sada Al-Muhtaramun” program, Wahba explained that the Penal Code stipulates that the briber or intermediary will have their penalty lifted if they report the incident to the authorities or confess to it, pointing out that there is no corruption case, but rather the real issue is bureaucratic red tape.
He indicated that businessman Ayman Al-Gamil, who is accused in the case, did not offer a bribe to obtain a right he did not have, but rather he was subjected to extortion by officials at the Ministry of Agriculture to complete the paperwork for legalizing his property, stressing that he confessed to the prosecution that the accused had tried to extort him more than once to finalize the land legalization papers, and in the end, he gave them what they wanted in order to obtain his right.
He added that his client has all the documents that prove his possession and ownership of the land for which he requested legalization, pointing out that he had applied more than once to legalize this land and filed nine lawsuits for legalization, but obstacles were placed in his way to extort him, adding: “We are facing a case of extortion, not bribery.”
The lawyer for businessman Ayman Al-Gamil stated that his client went to the regulatory authorities with all the documents indicating the truth of the incident, but the regulatory authorities aimed to bring a case against the minister and did not care about resolving the issue of land legalization.
It is worth noting that businessman Ayman Al-Gamil submitted several requests to the state years ago to legalize the land he had cultivated, which covers an area of 2,500 feddans in Wadi El Natrun, in the Beheira Governorate. The investigations in the case proved that, based on this, the company “Cairo 3D” for agricultural and animal production, which Ayman Al-Gamil legally represents, submitted request No. 6844 on May 3, 2010, to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Reconstruction Projects and Agricultural Development, to legalize its possession of the aforementioned area. The company paid an amount of 2 million and five hundred thousand Egyptian pounds by means of a bank check to the Authority, and the company submitted the required documents to proceed with the procedures for legalizing the land in accordance with the law. An on-site inspection and a remote sensing inspection (satellite) were carried out.