Hala Zayed is good at promoting herself (Khaled Desouki/AFP)
distance More than 7 months of disappearance And silence, the Egyptian Minister of Health, Hala Zayed, recently appeared once more, in a video clip described by parliamentary sources as… “An attempt to wash its reputation and reinvent itself”following a while announcing Corruption case in the ministry that it manages while carrying out its work, and assigning the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar to carry out the work of the Minister of Health and Population.
Since last October 26 Zayed disappeared from the sceneAfter announcing that she had suffered a “heart attack” and was transferred to the “Wadi El-Nile” Hospital, which is affiliated with the General Intelligence. On the same day, sources from within the ministry told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the men of the Administrative Control Authority came suddenly to its office and arrested officials close to it, which is what led to its collapse.
The sources confirmed that “the administrative control men were on the verge of arresting the minister, had it not been for the intervention of the head of the General Intelligence Service, Major General Abbas Kamel.”
Hala Zayed appeared last week in a video recording circulated by activists and those close to her, in a session in the presence of her friends in the medical field and some officials of the Ministry of Health, where she was talking regarding her work in the ministry. Some of the attendees also spoke regarding what they described as Hala Zayed’s “achievements” in the ministry, and her “successful” policy.
The appearance of Hala Zayed was arranged, and with a green light from officials in the General Intelligence Service
A non-spontaneous appearance of Hala Zayed
In this context, special sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that “Minister Zayed’s appearance is not spontaneous, but rather arranged, with a green light from officials in the General Intelligence Service.”
According to the sources, Zayed “invited a group of her friends and acquaintances in the medical field to a session in her villa in New Cairo, and spoke with them and said that she had made many mistakes in the ministry, and that she is now in the process of re-evaluating herself.”
The sources added, “This method is familiar to Hala Zayed even before her appointment as Minister of Health, as she is good at managing public relations and promoting herself.” The sources said, “The appearance of the minister and her polishing of her image in this way may be a prelude to something being arranged, such as her appointment to a new position.”
And she added, “Despite the absence of senior officials in the ministry from Hala Zayed’s session, there were other personalities who attended, including Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, the assistant minister for financial and administrative affairs.”
The sources revealed that “Zayed’s exit following she was silent, and her interview with some and her talk regarding her tenure in the ministry, was carried out in coordination with officials in the General Intelligence Service, and the meeting she held at her home was organized by one of her close associates in the ministry and an official in the Department of Public Relations and Ceremonies, who was responsible About organizing Zayed’s meetings.
The case of “bribery of the Egyptian Ministry of Health” continues
At the time when Hala Zayed reappeared, the Cairo Criminal Court was hearing the arguments of the Public Prosecution in the trial of 4 defendants in the case known as “bribery of the Ministry of Health.”
The prosecutor said at the trial session, last Thursday, that the first defendant, Muhammad Al-Ashhab (Hala Zayed’s ex-husband), “was an employee of an insurance company and had a social position, and his wife occupied the highest positions of the Ministry of Health and Population and had influence, but he refused to preserve the honesty and the forbidden wire and took advantage of influence”.
An officer in the Administrative Control had testified before the court in a previous session that “the first accused, Abdul Majeed Al-Ashhab, was identifying himself as the husband of Dr. Hala Zayed, the Minister of Health, and he was writing on his personal account that their married life still exists, in order to achieve personal interests.”
He added that Al-Ashhab “was communicating with his son, and then with the director of the office of Hala Zayed, the Minister of Health, and he was constantly communicating with the workers in her office, and there were instructions from the minister herself to fulfill her son’s requests and the house in general without referring to her.”
The appearance of the minister and her polishing of her image may be a prelude to something being arranged, such as her appointment to a new position
The testimony of the administrative control officer was supported by the testimony of the director of the minister’s office, Ahmed Salama, who said during the investigations that “any request from Al-Ashhab is as if it were from the minister personally,” adding that “the reference for this influence is due to instructions from the minister that any requests for her family recommended by officials to be fulfilled, and from Naturally, when her husband asks for something, it is for me, as if the minister had asked for it.
Despite this, and according to what private sources confirmed to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, “Minister Zayed was not summoned for investigation, and she received assurances from the General Intelligence Service that he It will not be touchedEspecially since the minister has special relations with officials in the agency.
The sources added, “This is in addition to Zayed’s close relationship with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi himself, and the circle close to him, as it was responsible for files that directly follow the presidency, including initiatives to treat Hepatitis C and (100 million health) and other initiatives that Egypt received aid and grants. international implementation.
The sources indicated that the accusation of Zayed in a corruption case “would have offended the reputation of the presidential initiatives before international donors, and therefore the minister was excluded from the case, even though the administrative control officers were basically conducting their investigations regarding Zayed herself, and that they were regarding to arrest her.” in her office.”
On December 29, the Public Prosecutor, Counselor Hamada El-Sawy, ordered the referral of four officials at the Ministry of Health to criminal trial, accusing the first of them of “asking for himself an amount of 5 million pounds (318,000 dollars), and taking 600,000 pounds as a bribe from the owners of a private hospital.” by two other defendants.
This came in exchange for this employee’s use of his influence to obtain from officials at the Ministry of Health decisions and benefits related to not implementing the decision to close this private hospital to run it without a license, and to prepare a false report that proves, contrary to the truth, that there are no violations in it. The fourth accused was charged with committing the forgery.
The referral order in the restricted case No. 2284 of 2021, the Supreme State Security’s inventory, included Muhammad Abdul Majeed Muhammad Husayn Al-Ashhab who works as a first specialist at the Misr Life Insurance Company, Attia Al-Fayoumi, a doctor and hospital owner, Hossam El-Din Fouda, a retired employee, and Muhammad Ahmed Behairy He is the Director General of the General Administration of Licensing in the General Administration of Remedial Institutions.
