Egypt bans thousands of businessmen from travel pending investigation
Egypt bans thousands of businessmen from travel pending investigation
Around a thousand Egyptian businessmen have been prohibited from leaving the country pending investigations into violations of real estate laws, sources told The New Arab.
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The Egyptian economy is still reeling from the fallout of the 2011 uprising [Getty]
Around a thousand Egyptian businessmen have been prohibited from leaving the country pending investigations into violations of real estate laws.
An Egyptian official told The New Arab on Friday that a government committee in charge of recovering state land drew up a list of businessmen earlier this month to be banned from travel abroad - a move that would allegedly pressure them to "invest more domestically".
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has recently been on a mission to revive his country's ailing economy.
Last month parliament passed a law on value added tax, one of the reforms promised in exchange for a $12 billion loan agreed with the International Monetary Fund.
"The committee has written up a list that includes a thousand businessmen, wealthy Egyptians, land owners and real estate owners of newly-built residential compounds," the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.
"The public prosecutor has received the list of people, who will be charged with various offences such as seizing state land and violating building regulations."
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| Sisi urged people to donate their spare change [Getty] |
He added that the majority of the offences have previously been investigated, however, the committee has ordered that the cases be reopened and that the businessmen mentioned on the list be barred from travel.
A source in the Egyptian judicial system confirmed that the travel bans have been issued.
"A number of well-known businessmen have been banned from travelling. The violations they have been accused of are minimal so they have decided against going to the press to preserve their interests," he said.
More than five years after its 2011 uprising - partly fuelled by economic disparities - that swept away veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak, Egypt is still reeling from the fallout.
This week, during a speech at a ceremony for the launch of a housing project in Alexandria, Sisi urged people to donate their spare change or the decimal points in their usual bank transactions.
"Can't we take change, say 50 piasters ($0.10), and put it in an account to fund such housing projects?" Sisi asked the audience.
He then gave an example of when cashing a salary cheque for 1,250.80 pounds, "can't we donate that extra 80 piasters or whatever?"
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