Prosecutors have shelved complaints filed against the former antiquities minister which alleged he wasted public funds
Posted on 06/14/2014 12:27:11 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Egypt's leading prosecutor for public funds cases has cleared world-renowned Egyptologist Zawi Hawass on charges of wasting public money and illicit gains.
Hawass, who served as antiquities minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, was also accused by former colleagues of neglecting Egypt's heritage sites and sending unique artefacts abroad, such as two Tutankhamun exhibitions in 2008.
Further complaints alleged that Hawass was guilty of illicit gains through his clothing line, which features photos of himself and Egyptian artefacts.
However, after two years of investigations into the complaints, Ahmed El-Bahrawi, First Attorney-General for Public Funds Prosecution, decided on Tuesday to dismiss the allegations.
This is not the first time such accusations have been levelled at Hawass. Past investigations have also cleared him of charges.
Investigations for this round of allegations showed that all Egyptian antiquities in question were displayed through legal means abroad and were secured against damage. Also, all revenues from the international exhibitions were placed in the government's coffers, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also decided that the charges regarding Hawass' clothes line were invalid and that all documents submitted with the complaints were fake.
Hawass has gained prominence in the international media throughout his career, appearing in several documentaries and television series, including Chasing Mummies: The Amazing Adventures of Zahi Hawass, which was aired on the History Chanel in 2010.
Awarded a doctorate in Egyptology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1987, Hawass is the author and co-author of several books, his latest being Ancient African Kingdoms on the Nile: Nubia, released in 2012. He was profiled as one the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2006.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.ahram.org.eg ...
Prosecutors have shelved complaints filed against the former antiquities minister which alleged he wasted public funds
Bummer. I couldn’t stand the self absorbed Muslim scumbag.
That was really uncalled- for
This guys job was to exactly what you saw him on TV doing.. and he was good at it and very protective of Egypts artifacts.
The charges were FAKE documents (did you miss that part?) and were originally filed by the muslim brotherhood terrorist supporters that originally took over Egypt- then the Egyptian people threw them out of office, and this guy has now been rightly cleared of any fake charges.
Where do you get the idea he was a “scumbag” ?
Oh, MAN!
I don’t know about his faults, if any. But he has done more to promote a positive image of Egypt abroad than any one I know
I’d read that he was called “the pharaoh” because his autocratic attitude reduced some students to tears and caused others to walk off projects he was in charge of. Putting that aside, the man is obviously qualified, knows what he is doing, and is passionate about his work.
I think the most common observation about Mr. Hawass was that he was very eager for attention to himself, along with the artifacts of Ancient Egypt. This would go right along with a clothing line of “him and Egypt.”
I agree that he was an agreeable spokesman for Egyptian archaeology/tourism. Cheerful guy.
I’ve been tempted, because he and I have approximately the same, uh, build (girth).
He’s good on TV, I’ll grant that. My biggest quibble with him is that he’s the one (or the highest profile one anyway) that’s pushing the nonsense that ancient Egypt never had slaves. He insists that the workers who built the pyramids and other such works were in fact paid laborers.
I’m willing to assume that there were skilled artisans involved in all those projects, and they were likely paid professionals. I think it is ludicrous however to contend that Egyptian culture was such that slavery never happened. He pushes a condition of moral superiority because of this... and it’s annoying. Egypt had slaves and lots of them. So did everybody else.
Compared with some who have had the post, he’s qualified, but that ain’t sayin’ much.
He’s had his scrapes with Egypt’s so-called legal system before, and managed to evade jail time at least once. But like muzzies everywhere, he is indeed a scumbag.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3167766/posts?page=10#10
It's not chattel slavery in the sugar-plantation sense, although Egypt also had that on a smaller scale. However, it's based on the concept that every man's labor belongs to the God-King and is available when he wants it. Same with the land, which all belongs to Pharoah since (according to Genesis) that sharper Joseph the Israelite made the peasants surrender their land in exchange for food.
For most of Egyptian history, all the people were theoretically slaves of the Pharaoh. Obviously, the extent to which theory aligned with reality varied with the power and status of the individuals involved.
Well stated. The idea that building monuments for pharaoh was just a nice normal national project by paid labor is a ridiculous modern nationalist invention. Same goes for the idea that this was just their way of paying their taxes. It’s perhaps a little surprising that there weren’t more civil wars in ancient Egypt, but not surprising that the 4th dynasty ended badly and became infamous in Egyptian folklore.
"Taxes" were paid in-kind (as Genesis confirms) in grain, assessed by provincial governors through agents rather like Roman tax-farmers. Produce the amount the governor owes to the Crown, and whatever else you can get out of the peasants is yours ... but if they throw you to the crocodiles, the governor will find another agent with better judgment.
Corvee is how China's canals were built, and many of the ancient world's other great projects. The vast majority of the population were farmers, and there are times when farm work can't be done, such as during Inundation in Egypt. If the adult man of your household was drafted, at least he was eating on the Pharaoh's nickel for a while. (I kind of wish we had something like this for my teenagers!)
Hawass never met a camera he didn’t like.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
