Abd Al-Rahman Seoudi Honored by Mubarak, Detained by Al Adli

Abd Al-Rahman Seoudi Honored by Mubarak, Detained by Al Adli

The Egyptian regime is obsessed with power. In order to keep its grip on it, the regime is ready to destroy anyone or anything that obstructs its way, whatever the ideology or activity … Muslim Brotherhood or any other opposition power.
 
Therefore, when the regime targets and wants to eradicate certain opposition movement or party, it does not take into consideration the consequences of its schemes, even if they endanger the national economy and ruins Egypt.
 
It even distorts the image of those it seeks to get rid of, like what is happening now with the Muslim Brotherhood; the regime is trying to defame these well-reputed figures through media campaigns and is stirring other issues to attract the attention like the cases of the spy and Hala Sarhan.
 
This is an important introduction before holding this interview with the family of the businessman Abd Al-Rahman Seoudi who is currently detained on charges of funding the Muslim Brotherhood and money laundry, and even considering him an official in the Muslim Brotherhood”s economic committee and financial support.
 
Doctor-Turned-Businessman
 
His wife Mrs. Nagwa Zohdi says:” My husband is Abdul Rahman Mohamed Mohamed Seoudi; he was born in Giza on June, 6, 1951; he graduated from Kasr Alainy faculty of medicine, Cairo University; we got married in 1978 while he wa still a college student; we have eight children: Mus”ab, Hamza, Salman, Ali, Aisha, Abu Bakr, Mariam and Mohamed.
 
Saudi”s elder son, Mus”ab says:” After my father graduated from the Faculty of Medicine and became a doctor, he preferred to work in my grandfather”s business- trade; which he started in 1938; my father established a contracting company in 1980, the Urban Development Co., which is still working throughout 27 years; it was established on Jan., 2, 1982, according to the company”s tax card No. 437257798 Agouza- Muhandseen and its trade registry is No. 55953 Giza .
 
 
Clients Include Interior Ministry?!
 
Mus”ab added that this company established many contracting and building projects for the government, topped by the Interior Ministry; “my father”s company supervised building the police tower in Lazughli, 22 hospitals for the Health Ministry, some clubs for the previous Ministry of Youth and many university buildings for the Ministry of Higher Education; my father”s company constructed buildings for the Foreign Ministry; some of these projects have been already delivered while some others are still under construction but they stopped after my father was arrested.
 
“It is self-evident that a company that constructs such a big number of projects for Ministries and state-run institutions must have been committed to legal specifications that qualify it for this activity; it isn”t acceptable that our company constructs huge buildings like the police tower for the Ministry of Interior while its owner is involved in illegal activities like money laundry .. have the state bodies been blind all these years in which my father was building their towers, hospitals and club”, said Mus”ab, adding that “the Giza Medical company whose board is headed by my father is responsible for the maintenance of the heart devices in the Interior Ministry prisons and the old and French branches of Kasr Alainy hospitals; this company was established in 1995 and has been working till my father was arrested.
 
Mus”ab wondered why the bodies that accused his father of mony laundry left him deal with ministries and state run institutions like the Interior and Foreign Ministries,…if there charges are real?; My father has been working in the field of contracting for more than a quarter of a century…have they discovered abruptly that   he is doing illegal activities or is this a recently orchestrated scheme to entrap an honest businessman who seeks welfare for himself and his country?
 
Mus”ab said:” Frankly speaking, my father doesn”t belong to the Muslim Brotherhood as an ideology or as an organization; he is a Muslim who is performing the tenets of religion and is enthusiastic and honest in his work; he is 56 years old; have they discovered suddenly that he is an MB leader and financier??!!.
 
My father was preparing for performing pilgrimage to Mecca; he traveled abroad and he returned to Cairo for two days then he traveled abroad for two days, then he returned; if the authorities knew any thing about his detention they would have prevented him from traveling; this means that his arrest and other arrests are politically motivated.
 
– I asked Saud”s wife: Describe the details of your husband”s detention?
 
She said:” We were surprised last January 14 at about 2.30 AM by a big number of officers and soldiers raiding the house and besieging it from outside; they ransacked every thing, including the bedroom and the library and they took 115 thousand rials, 1000 dollars and 1000 Euros. This the money which was with him when returned with his mother from pilgrimage. It is natural to have money at home because he is a businessman and keeping money at home is not a crime.
 
Mus”ab adds that he was surprised that they raided houses of our neighbours thinking that the hous is my father”s; this proves that the detentions were a spur of the moment not out of careful and right investigations; they didn”t know our address; this means that they may be ignorant of our business and that we are the ones who constructed buildings of their ministries?!
 
Saudi”s wife added:” My husband is a respectable man; he treated them kindly, gave them tea, juices although they came to arrest him!! Then they took my husband to Jabir Ibn-Hayyan state security branch; then they took him to the company”s old headquarters in Syria street, Al-Muhandseen; my husband, Abd Al-Rahman, told them they he left this building 18 years ago; this proves that their evidence and investigations, according to which my husband is detained, are fake, groundless and inaccurate.
 
I asked the family: what is your comment on the money laundry charge and considering Dr. Saudi a Muslim Brotherhood leader and financier?
 
They said: “the regime hasn”t submitted any evidence on these charges; the case files do not include any document that implicate Saudi in any financial dealings of such a kind.
Also, the money laundry law text obliges the investigating authorities to submit the other side of the money laundry charge; that”s, if Abd Al-Rahman Saudi has done money laundry, for who is he doing this and where?; if the field in which he has been doing money laundry was the Interior and Foreign Ministries, why haven”t they been indicted as well?
 
 
Mubarak”s Ribbon-Cutting Ceremonies
 
Musلb surprised us with something that many people don’t know: that president Mubarak attended many ribbon-cutting ceremonies for many projects owned and executed by Saudi family; he even signed in the visitors book, praising their efforts for serving the Egyptian economy; also Mrs Susan Mubarak accompanied by Hillary Clinton visited many hospitals established by Mr. Saud’s company and praised them; however, they arrest him after all these achievements.
 
If their secret investigations have been maintained for many months, why has the Interior Ministry agreed on dealing with us 6 months before arresting my father, after it approved that we build the police tower affiliated to the Ministry of Interior, and why has a ministry agreed on allowing us to execute its projects only 4 months before my father was detained” Musلb wondered.”
 
Hamza adds that:” I think that the real victim from all these measures is the Egyptian economy; US newspapers confirmed that billions were smuggled from Egypt because of the current repressive atmosphere.
 
Musلb points out that his father dealt with nearly all Egyptian banks, and no financial problem took place between him and any bank; he did not steal and he did not escape with bank loans like many others; is this the reward to people who serve their domestic economy!
 
Concerning the details of the last court session in which the ruling of freezing the assets was upheld, Musلb said they were denied access to the courtroom; they even prevented my father’s lawyer from attending the trial; when the lawyer told the officer that preventing him is illegal, the officer replied that he knows it is illegal and he won’t be allowed to enter.
 
As for Mohamed, the younger son of Dr. Abd Al-Rahman Saudi, he wasn’t informed for two weeks that his father was arrested; when they informed me that he is in prison, I said that they are thieves, but father isn’t; my father is an honest man.
 
Finally, the wife of Dr. Saudi describes the feelings of the last visit last Thursday; she says that Dr. Abdul Rahman is content with God”s decree, and he is confident that Allah will reveal truth; we, members of his family, are sure that he is innocent whatever the judicial ruling is.