Satellite channel owned by Egyptian intelligence faces legal action

Severe financial crises have cast their shadow on Al-Hayat TV network, which was acquired by the Egyptian intelligence agency-owned Falcon Company last September.

Moves have been taken to recover its debts to MBC TV network, which has seized Al-Hayat’s property to cover the amount owed for the rights to broadcast television programmes. The Cairo Court of Appeal has issued a ruling to lift the confidentiality of the network’s bank accounts to facilitate the debt recovery.

In the same context, Sony Pictures of Lebanon has implemented a judicial ruling to seize Al-Hayat in order to obtain the $1,000,000 owed to it for several television programmes, including “Who wants to be a Millionaire”.

In another blow, businessman Alaa El-Kahky, owner of Media Line and Al-Nahar television network, was granted a ruling allowing him to seize Al-Hayat assets as the company did not pay the debts owed to him by its former owner, which total around $5.6 million.

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Sources have revealed that ownership of Al-Hayat was transferred to Tawasul, one of Falcon’s companies, due to the complaints filed against the network. This meant that all responsibilities and debts were transferred to the new owner.

MBC Egypt’s legal advisor, Tharwat Abdelshaheed, said that Al-Hayat is behind in its repayments and several requests and warnings were sent without any response. “All friendly attempts failed,” he explained, “and so we resorted to international arbitration. This acknowledged our entitlement to $6 million. Al-Hayat tried to get a decision nullifying the rulings, but it lost all of these cases.”