Businessman Hassan Rateb released…and lawyer Tariq Jamil Saeed: He has served his entire sentence in the major antiquities case

The security services released businessman Hassan Rateb after he spent 3 years in the case known in the media as “the major effects” of the sentence imposed on him, unless he is wanted in connection with other cases.

Lawyer Tariq Jameel Saeed said that the decision to release him came after serving the sentence imposed by the Court of Cassation of 3 years imprisonment instead of five years, in the major antiquities case.

Saeed explained in a special statement to Al-Shorouk that he will be released after completing all the necessary papers for release and that he is not wanted in connection with other cases.

The Court of Cassation ruled to accept the appeals submitted by businessman Hassan Ratib, former parliamentarian Alaa Hassanein, and others, in the case in which they were accused of excavating antiquities, trafficking in them, and smuggling them outside the country. The Court of Cassation amended the penalties issued against them to become final and final and may not be appealed again.

The ruling was issued under the chairmanship of Counselor Mohamed Khair El-Din, Vice President of the Court of Cassation, with the membership of Counsellors Mustafa Al-Sadiq, Ahmed Qazamel, Ahmed Assem, and Ayman Abdel Wahab, and the membership of the Technical Office, Counselor Ahmed Mihoub.

The court sentenced former parliamentarian Alaa Hassanein to five years in prison and fined him one million pounds, on charges of conducting excavation work with the intention of obtaining antiquities without a license and trading in antiquities.

The court sentenced businessman Hassan Kamel Rateb to three years in prison and a fine of one million pounds for the charges brought against him.

The court also sentenced each of: Ezz El-Din Mohamed, Mohamed Kamel Nagi, Ahmed Abdel Raouf Mahmoud, Ishaq Halim, Milad Halim, Ahmed Abdel Azim, Abdel Azim Abdel Karim, Mohamed Abdel Rahim, Ahmed Ali Hassan, Osama Ali Mohamed, Shaaban Morsi Khalifa Ali, Mahmoud Refaat Bayoumi, Mahmoud Abdel Fattah, Mohamed Abdel Rahim, Ahmed Sabry, Ahmed Ali Mohamed, known as “Ahmed Gezira”, Ashraf Mohamed Salah, Hassan Ali Al-Kharboutli, and Mohamed Al-Sayed Abdel Rahman Ali, to two years in prison with hard labor and a fine of EGP 500,000 for each of them.

The ruling included the reservation of the four excavation sites until the Supreme Council of Antiquities carried out the excavation work at the expense of the convicts and the confiscation of the seized antiquities, devices, and car No. S.Q. 8934 in favor of the aforementioned Council.

The Court of Cassation acquitted the accused Akmal Rabie and Nagih Hassanein (brother of Alaa Hassanein) of the charges against them. It also acquitted Alaa Hassanein of the charges of intentionally destroying movable antiquities and participating in counterfeiting antiquities, and acquitted him and the accused Ezz El-Din Mohamed and Mohamed Kamel Nagi of the charge of concealing antiquities with the intent to smuggle them.

The ruling included the end of the dispute due to death, with regard to the appeal submitted by Atef Abdel Hamid.

• Criminal judgment

In April 2022, the North Cairo Criminal Court, headed by Counselor Khalil Omar, sentenced Alaa Muhammad Hassanein, Akmal Rabie, Ezz El-Din Muhammad, Muhammad Kamel, and Nageh Hassanein to 10 years in prison and a fine of one million pounds each for the charges against them. .

The court sentenced Atef Abdel Hamid, Ahmed Abdel Raouf, Osama Ali, Ishaq Halim, Milad Halim Habib Khalil, Abdel Azim Abdel Karim, Ahmed Abdel Azim, Shaaban Morsi, Mahmoud Refaat, Mahmoud Abdel Fattah, Mohamed Abdel Rahim, Ahmed Sabry, Ahmed Ali, Ashraf Mohamed, Mohamed El Sayed, Ramadan Ibrahim, Mohamed Abdel Azim, and the last defendant, businessman Hassan Kamel Rateb, to five years in prison and fined each of them one million pounds for the charges brought against them.

The court acquitted all the defendants of the charge of managing, forming, joining and participating in a gang to smuggle antiquities out of the country.

The ruling included the preservation of the four excavation sites until the Supreme Council of Antiquities carries out the excavation work at the expense of the convicts, and the confiscation of all the seized items, tools, machines, equipment, and the two cars for the benefit of the Council.

• Prosecution charges

The Attorney General ordered the referral of former MP Alaa Hassanein, businessman Hassan Rateb, and 21 other defendants to the competent criminal court.

The Public Prosecution charged Alaa Hassanein with forming and managing a gang with the aim of smuggling antiquities out of the country, destroying movable antiquities by deliberately separating part of them, trading in antiquities, and participating with an unknown person by way of agreement in counterfeiting antiquities with the intent to defraud.

While the prosecution charged Hassan Rateb with participating with Hassanein in the gang he managed by financing it to implement its criminal plans, as well as participating with him in committing the crime of conducting excavation work in 4 sites with the intention of obtaining antiquities without a license and trading in them.

The prosecution charged the rest of the defendants with joining the aforementioned gang, some of them hiding antiquities with the intention of smuggling, and carrying out excavation work in the four aforementioned sites with the intention of obtaining antiquities without a license.

The Public Prosecution stated that it established evidence before the accused from the testimony of fifteen witnesses, including those conducting the investigations and those in charge of arresting the accused in accordance with the permission of the Public Prosecution, and some of them recognized a number of the accused during a legal presentation to them during the investigations, and what was proven to the Public Prosecution regarding its inspection of the four excavation sites and examination of And watching the phones of some of the defendants and the video clips and pictures they contained of artifacts, excavation sites, and conversations that took place between them about them.

The evidence included the findings of the committee formed by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in examining the seized artifacts and viewing the video clips and photos referred to on the defendants’ phones, and what was proven in the report of the committee formed by the Antiquities Area of ​​Ancient Egypt in examining the excavation sites and examining the seized tools and machines.