Health minister’s ex-husband, senior ministry official found guilty in bribery case

A major bribery investigation was concluded on Wednesday by the Cairo Criminal Court, which issued a 10-year prison sentence and a LE500,000 penalty to the ex-husband of Health Minister Hala Zayed, who has been on extended medical leave from her post in government since the case emerged in October.

The former director of licensing at the ministry’s free treatment department, Mohamed Ahmed Behairy, also received a one-year prison sentence.

Mohamed Abdel Meguid al-Ashhab, Zayed’s ex-husband, stood accused of demanding a LE5,000,000 bribe in exchange for using his position to obtain a license for the private Dar al-Saha Hospital, which did not meet licensing requirements.

The second defendant was charged with forging the paperwork to complete the licensing procedures.

According to the Public Prosecution, Dar al-Saha’s owners “informed the Administrative Control Authority of the bribery incident as soon as [the first defendant] requested it, and proceeded with the bribery, with the permission of the Public Prosecution, until the arrest was successful.”

In the same case, the court acquitted two people who acted as mediators between Ashhab and the hospital owner because they confessed:  retired Armed Forces officer Hossam Eddin Abdullah Foud and the owner of Fayoumy Hospital, Attia Ibrahim al-Fayoumy. 

The case first came to the attention of the public on October 26, 2021, when Zayed was reported to have been admitted to hospital due to sudden heart symptoms, at the same time as a number of Health Ministry officials were reported arrested by the Financial Regulatory Authority. 

The following day, the Public Prosecution announced that investigations had begun into Health Ministry officials based on accusations of bribery, providing no further details as to the officials’ identities. But several newspapers, including Al-Osboa, whose editor in chief is MP and broadcaster Mostafa Bakry, published stories claiming that Zayed's chief of staff and four other senior ministry officials had been arrested on corruption charges. The stories were taken down shortly after publication.

On the same day as the Public Prosecution’s statement was issued, Health Minister Hala Zayed was discharged from the Nile Valley Specialized Hospital, just 24 hours after suffering a heart attack and being placed in intensive care, the hospital director told the press.

Zayed is yet to resume her duties as minister. Within days of her reported hospitalization, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered that the duties of the health minister be delegated to Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, who has been acting on her behalf since then. 

The case prompted widespread speculation among commentators and the public. “I may respect the prosecution’s decision to hide the names of the defendants. But, if the minister has no relation to any of the officials accused, how come she’s not at work?” primetime TV presenter Amr Adib asked at the beginning of January, almost two months into the investigations. 

On January 5, the defendants’ identities were revealed for the first time, as the prosecution concluded its investigations and referred the case to the criminal court.

But some of the testimonies heard by the prosecution had already been leaked in the press. The minister's office director Ahmed Salama was reported to have said that Zayed had given internal instructions that “any of her family’s requests should be processed with utmost speed.” When asked about the influence of Ashhab over the ministry’s officials, Salama said: “He’s the minister’s husband. His requests are [are of the same significance as] the requests of the minister.”

Yet later, before the court, Salama said he was aware that “ever since the minister assumed her position, there were disputes between her and the first defendant [Ashhab],” adding that she had never requested special treatment for her husband. 

Among the testimonies the court heard was one from an officer from the Administrative Control Authority who claimed that even after Zayed had divorced Ashhab, he continued to introduce himself as her husband to exploit his position.

The officer's testimony also claimed that the first defendant used to delegate communication with Health Ministry officials to his and Zayed’s son, rather than communicating with ministry staff himself and that no one was aware of the bribery other than Ashhab and the licensing official from the ministry who was sentenced alongside him on Wednesday.

Earlier reports had said that the hospital was not eligible for a license, said the witness, but after a communication from the minister’s son, a committee was nevertheless formed by the head of the free treatment department to determine whether the hospital could be licensed.