After investigations after she sought help from Sisi, the wife of imprisoned businessman Safwan Thabet was released

CAIRO -

The Supreme State Security Prosecution released Bahira El-Shawy, the wife of Egyptian businessman Safwan Thabet, who had been imprisoned for months, along with his son Seif, on a bail of 5,000 pounds (the dollar is less than 16 pounds) after an investigation that lasted for about 8 hours.

According to lawyer Nasser Amin, Al-Shawi was subjected - the day before yesterday, Saturday - to investigations before the prosecution, which charged her with "publishing, broadcasting and broadcasting false news and statements, and sharing a terrorist group with knowledge and promoting its purposes," after she broadcast a video clip through her account on Facebook at the end of September. Last September, she appealed to the President of the Republic to look into the case of her husband and son.

It is noteworthy that Safwan Thabet is a famous Egyptian businessman who owns the "Juhayna" brand, which is one of the largest brands working in the field of dairy and foodstuffs in Egypt and the Arab world.

On September 27, Amnesty International condemned what it described as the "misuse of anti-terrorism laws" by the Egyptian authorities by arbitrarily detaining Thabet and his son "in retaliation for their refusal to hand over their company's assets" to a state-owned entity, according to the organization's statement.

The international organization said that the Egyptian authorities are holding both the founder of one of the largest dairy and juice companies in the country and his son in "conditions amounting to torture because of their refusal to give up their property."

Reuters news agency said that the State Information Service in Egypt did not respond to a request to comment on the statement, and no government responses were issued about the statement.

The organization said - according to sources familiar with the situation of the company and the Thabet family - that Egyptian security officials asked Safwan before his arrest and his son to hand over part of the Juhayna Company to a government-owned entity, and Seif El-Din gave up the family's right to its shares.

Two days after the international organization’s statement, the name of businessman Safwan Thabet (75 years) re-emerged after the issuance of a statement by the Ministry of Interior, in which the ministry spoke about thwarting what it called a “plot” aimed at financing the Muslim Brotherhood, and the arrest of a man named Yahya Mahran, described by the statement. He was described as "one of the main arms of Safwan Thabet" and as a "leader of my brothers".

The Ministry of the Interior said that "the scheme targeted the use of fixed companies in transferring and concealing the organization's funds and investing their returns for terrorist activities," adding that $8.4 million (LE 132 million) and ammunition were found in an apartment in Giza Governorate.

In response to the statement of the Ministry of the Interior, Bahira Al-Shawi, Thabet’s wife, took the initiative to deny what was stated in the statement in whole and in detail, and published on her personal page on Facebook a video clip in which she refuted these allegations, according to her description, and appealed to President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to reconsider the case, and to release her husband and son .

Two days after the publication of her distress, a lawyer filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor and the Supreme State Security Prosecution against her, accusing her of spreading false news from an anti-Egypt channel, which the prosecution investigated with El-Shawy last Saturday before releasing her.

In 2014, with the arrival of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to power, Safwan Thabet was invited to participate in one of the first meetings that the new president had with businessmen in 2014, a meeting after which Safwan Thabet announced his donation to the Long Live Egypt Fund in the amount of 50 million pounds.

But in 2015, the Egyptian government froze the bank accounts of Safwan Thabet, accusing him of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Despite putting his money and his family’s money under custody in 2015, Safwan Thabet maintained a good relationship in working with the state. In the same year and during the next 3 years, Juhayna Company received an honor from the state among the top 100 Egyptian companies, and Safwan Thabet participated in the honoring in the presence of Sahar Nasr, The Minister of International Cooperation at the time, according to the "Mada Masr" news website.

Thabet remained president of the company until he was included on the "terrorist lists" in 2017 for a period of 3 years.

In 2018, Saif Thabet, son of Safwan, donated 15 million pounds to the Long Live Egypt Fund, to support the campaign to eradicate the C virus, a contribution after which the company received a shield of honor that Saif himself received from the Financial Affairs Authority of the Armed Forces, and Major General Mohamed Amin. Ibrahim, Treasurer of Tahya Misr, according to a Juhayna media statement in June 2018.

And in 2020, Thabet was arrested, then his son Saif joined him in prison for about two months, after Saif was chosen to succeed his father as CEO of the company.

According to Mada Masr, a few weeks before the arrest of Safwan Thabet, a senior figure involved in one of the projects established by the authority to produce dairy made multiple visits to one of Juhayna's factories.

During one of the visits, officials spoke with Thabet about the need to consider integrating part of his factories with the next factory to be an address for real support for the food industries, while Thabet considered this talk as a mere chat and not a request.