Egypt's Sisi allocated 30% of youth housing project in bribes to army generals

The Egyptian coup leader and presidential hopeful Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi allocated 30 percent of the youth housing project “Emaar Square” to army generals in return for their support to his presidency bid, the Arab Observatory for Rights and Freedoms (AORF) reported in a statement.

The AORF reported that Sisi allocated 20 percent of the project to members of the military council and a number of officers, as well as 10 percent to lower ranking officers in return for their silence about the deal. According to the report, Sisi declined a request by Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed to hand over ownership to Mubarak era prime minister Ahmed Shafik.

Furthermore, the report added that the Egyptian army allocated 65 acres of “strategic lands” in Cairo to the United Arab Emirates after expelling their residents in return for one tenth of the real price per meter. It mentioned that the Emirati Emaar construction company will acquire 20 percent of revenues from the project, while Egyptian army generals will receive 30 percent.

The project will be composed of a massive residence compound, in addition to shopping malls. Emirati companies have been planning for the project since Mubarak era, the report pointed out.

According to AORF, the deal started since Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan’s visit to Egypt in December 2013, when he met with then Minister of Defense Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, who told him that he wanted “a new Dubai” in Egypt. During the meeting, Sisi expressed his admiration of Dubai’s economic development, and “was surprised to find that Abdullah Bin Zayed already had plans for a number of huge projects which had been prepared since Mubarak’s era and were postponed when Mohamed Morsi came to power.”