Senior officials and businesspeople from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates were involved in financial deals that funded the illicit excavation and smuggling of over 200 archeological artifacts, according to court documents from a trial that began this year obtained by Mada Masr.
At the heart of the matter lies a unique trove of ancient objects, extracted from the mouth of five separate tunnels dug under urban residential areas, tapping ancient tombs for treasures spanning prehistory to classical civilization that were ultimately sold to buyers across 42 countries.
The illicit smuggling operations were brought to light by a financial dispute over a sum of US$3 million between the two central protagonists, one of them an Egyptian businessman and media mogul, Hassan Ratib, and the other a self-professed exorcist and sorcerer who once held a seat in Egypt's legislature, Alaa Hassanein.
After the arrest of Ratib and Hassanein in 2021, authorities collected evidence for a trial that was first set to begin in December, but was adjourned due to the recusal of the first judge. According to the state-oriented Cairo24 news outlet, a relative of the judge was applying for a position at Sinai University, which is owned by Ratib. A new court resumed the trial in February with the latest session taking place last week.
The case first became public in June 2021, when Egyptian police carried out 20 simultaneous arrests at least five different sites. Four were in Cairo's Ezbet Kheirallah, where holes in the ground acted as access points in illicit excavations. What the Interior Ministry described at the time as a "gang," headed by the former MP Alaa Hassanein, was working to empty burial sites of their stores of priceless archeological artifacts.
Hassanein was arrested with his driver, in possession of 36 apparently Pharaonic statues and 52 ancient coins, just some of a total of 227 artifacts including prehistoric, Pharaonic, Greek, Roman and Islamic pieces that were seized in the June operation. Security forces also confiscated equipment used in the excavations.
Days later, Hassan Ratib was also arrested, while another two defendants are reportedly outside of the country.
Hassanein, the owner of a quarrying conglomerate, held a seat in Parliament for the governorate of Minya as part of the National Democratic Party, the ruling party under the ousted late President Hosni Mubarak.
He gained a popular reputation as a sorcerer and a renowned practitioner of exorcisms. As a guest on TV channels, Hassanein, known as "the MP of jinn and demons," was invited to comment on the involvement of jinn in popular football matches, and to commune with the "king of the jinn" in the Cairo neighborhood of Shobra.
It was after an appearance on the Mehwar TV channel in which Hassanein performed an exorcism that he said he was first introduced to a Saudi Arabian princess in 2011, according to court documents obtained by Mada Masr.
"Nouf," as she is called in the court documents, asked Hassanein to travel to Saudi Arabia in order to help her daughter, who she said was possessed. From there, Hassanein's relationships in the Saudi royal family grew, according to his testimony, as he was asked to perform similar services for others.
Hassanein then pitched an investment opportunity to Ratib, who owned Mehwar TV at the time, that would involve Ratib partnering with Nouf on a project to build residential tower blocks in Giza and Riyadh.
Ratib and Hassanein boarded a private jet to Saudi Arabia to meet the princess, ultimately agreeing on a 60-40 split, with the majority going to Ratib. As a mediator, Hassanein would take 2.5 percent of the profits from each party.
As proof of intent, Nouf asked Ratib to send her SAR20 million (around US$5.3 million), according to the testimonies of both Ratib and Hassanein, and Ratib agreed and made the transfer after returning to Egypt.
Just a few months later, say the court documents, Hassanein became indignant upon discovering that Ratib and the princess had been communicating with one another directly, and for fear of losing his commission, he phoned Nouf to establish that her dealings with Ratib should go through him alone.
Under this agreement, Ratib transferred a sum worth $2.05 million to Hassanein, according to the latter's testimony, but Ratib told the courts that he transferred $2.7 million, which was intended for Hassanein to transfer onward to the princess.
Yet, according to Ratib's testimony, "due to the conditions created by the revolution against the [Muslim] Brotherhood," Hassanein was unable to transfer the funds, and as a result, Ratib demanded at the end of 2015 that Hassainain return the sum.
Hassanein did not return the money, and in 2017, Ratib sued him for fraud and breach of trust. Hassainain was arrested and held for four days before being released on bail and the two men ultimately reached a settlement out of court for repayment in installments. The residential project came to a halt, according to both testimonies, since the funds were never transferred to Nouf.
It's here that the smuggling trial began. On day one of proceedings before the North Cairo Criminal Court on February 12, defense lawyers for both Ratib and Hassanein called upon witnesses that included a friend of Ratib's.
The witness said that Ratib had requested their assistance in 2017 to help resolve a financial dispute between himself and Hassanein over a sum of US$3 million (LE47 million), which Ratib said had been given to Hassanein for delivery to Nouf in Saudi Arabia. Hassanein, on the other hand, told the witness that "the money is from antiquities." "At the time I didn't know if he was joking or not," the witness said.
Hassainain was then offered an opportunity to enter into gold-mining ventures in Aswan with an Emirati sheikh, who remains unnamed in the investigation documents, in order to raise funds to pay off Ratib, according to both Hassanein and Ratib's testimonies. The two men flew together to meet the Emirati, where Hassanein once again assumed his role as deal broker, according to Hassanein's testimony. Ratib and the Emiratis would act together to partner with the Shalateen Mineral Resources Company — which belongs to the Armed Forces National Service Projects Authority. Hassanein, once his dues to Ratib were paid off, would get a cut of the profits.
An Emirati company named Sama, according to Hassanein's testimony, was formed on the back of the negotiations. Participants in the company included Hassanein, Ratib, "several people who are important in Egypt" and "someone who belongs to a sovereign family in Egypt," as Hassanein describes them in his statement, as well as Egyptian construction magnate Abdel Mohsen Abdel Hassan, who operates mainly in Kuwait.
The General Intelligence Service, border authority and Military Intelligence Directorate investigated the parties for nearly a year and a half, according to Hassanein, who testified that the company was licensed, but that the Egyptian state later intervened to stop the project.
Ratib's testimony, meanwhile, describes Hassanein as mediating between himself and "important people in the Emirates" to undertake real estate projects in Dubai, all of which he described as going smoothly.
As for the missing millions that Ratib had transferred to Hassanein, Hassanein's brother Ezz Eddin and two other defendants said he had been paid from these funds to dig for and excavate antiquities in four different sites in Cairo and a fifth in Sohag.
The Public Prosecution charged that LE14.5 million had been used to finance the excavations out of a total of LE50 million (currently around US$3.2 million) earmarked by Ratib for the operation. Although the money was confiscated by the police next to dozens of pieces of evidence, and despite Ezz Eddin's testimony, both Hassanein and Ratib still denied the accusations.
Court documents, however, do not clarify whether Nouf, the Gulf figures or the senior Egyptian figures had knowledge of the antiquities smuggling.
Yet, former UAE ambassador to Egypt Hamad Saeed Al Shamsi left the country unexpectedly on December 13, 2021, when the Public Prosecution referred the detainees in the antiquities investigation to criminal trial, according to two well-informed Egyptian officials who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.
The sources said that Shamsi is one of four prominent figures from the Gulf who are said to have been involved in Ratib and Hassanein's alleged smuggling ring.
When exactly Shamsi departed from Egypt was recounted differently by the two sources. But on December 20, Emirati writer Abdullah Abdul-Khaleq, who is close to decision-makers in Abu Dhabi, tweeted that an Emirati ambassador had "made a mistake."
"He is currently under investigation. The results of the investigation will be announced transparently, and the ambassador will be punished," he said, deleting the tweet shortly afterward.
Yet, one of the Egyptian officials told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity that once Shamsi returned to Abu Dhabi, he was asked to stay at his home, but was not questioned.
According to the same official, Egypt expressed, through high-ranking officials, its dissatisfaction with the UAE over the involvement of its ambassador in the illegal trade in antiquities, which was met with a high-level Emirati visit to express Abu Dhabi's apology for the incident.
The next session in the trial is due on March 5.
-- Sent from my Linux system.
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