SEKEM Group 3, Belbeis Desert Road 11777 Cairo Egypt PO Box 2834 El Horreya, Heliopolis Tel: +20 (2) 6564124 Fax: +20 (2) 6564123 regina.hanel@sekem.com www.sekem.com Executive Director: Helmy Abouleish
SEKEM Group, 3, Belbeis Desert Road, 11777 Kairo
Cairo, 13 July 2011
Detention on Remand of Helmy Abouleish ends after 100 days Helmy Abouleish, Managing Director of the SEKEM Group of companies, has been released and has returned to SEKEM on 7 July after almost 100 days in detention on remand. The verdict which had been announced on 5 July sentences Helmy Abouleish to one year on probation and the payment of a fine. His holding on remand originally had been ordered on the basis of allegations concerning an alleged unlawful benefit from support services of the Industrial Modernization Centre (IMC) by SEKEM Group companies. During the period in question Helmy Abouleish had been a member of the IMC’s management committee after having laid down his executive directorship of the organisation. However, the applicable legal framework to determine the lawfulness of these services remained contested until the end of the trial. Ambiguous Legal Interpretations The IMC is an economic development fund that had been initiated by the European Union and the Egyptian government under a specific “Decree of Cooperation 66-1999”. Initially, the fund was endowed by the EU, the Egyptian government, and the Egyptian private sector. In 2006 the EU transferred its stake in it to the Egyptian government. Helmy Abouleish had been the organisation’s executive director in 2005 and 2006 and had remained on its management committee later on. With its verdict the court followed the interpretation of the prosecution requesting for the IMC not being a special status institution governed by its own regulation but instead an ordinary Egyptian executive authority. The rules of implementation of the cooperation law allowed the financing of measures in support of the SEKEM Group’s firms even under the aforementioned circumstances. Helmy Abouleish had also deferred all applications for support by SEKEM companies until 9 months after the end of his term as executive director. Funds by the IMC are never directly disbursed to beneficiary companies but are paid to suppliers carrying out training or other modernisation activities for recipient firms. All measures also had been repeatedly audited by multiple internal and external levels of control both inside and outside of the EU. A legal expertise called for at the beginning of the trial had confirmed the interpretation of legality of the actions. Even though the management committee had no executive powers the Egyptian state prosecutor now argued that SEKEM firms had in fact not been eligible for support during Abouleish’s membership of the group. Against the backdrop of the present detention of large numbers of the former regime’s members the release of Helmy Abouleish must be seen as a uncommon decision. After its proclamation Abouleish reaffirmed his interpretation of the legal situation and announced he would shortly file an appeal. He also stated that he would now again focus on the SEKEM companies and continue his contribution to the sustainable development of the country.
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