MANSOURAH, Egypt, 14 September 2006 — Two Saudi medical students, Saleh Bahajlan and Khaled Al-Khoraisi, victims of a swindling scheme, have been released by Mansourah police after three days of detention, Al-Watan reported yesterday.
They were released after lawyers of the Saudi Embassy in Egypt and the Mansourah University prevailed over the owner of an electrical appliances showroom, who was the mastermind of the swindling operations, to withdraw his complaint against the two students.
The students told Al-Watan that they had to suffer all the indignities and betrayals because a broker persuaded them to buy several electrical appliances on easy installments eight months ago.
Al-Khoraisi said: “An Egyptian friend working in the Kingdom had introduced us to a broker who took us to an electrical appliances showroom to buy two refrigerators, two washing machines, and two television sets on easy installments. The shop owner, Muhammad Fuoad, asked us to sign more than 15 blank papers. The installment amount and the total amount to be paid were not specified in the agreement document. The installments were for 1,000 Egyptian pounds.”
Muhammad Fuoad and a lawyer, Muhammad Muyassara, took the two to a real estate office to sign another document authorizing Muyassara as their legal representative.
“Being suspicious of the elaborate formalities we rushed to complete our payments by paying nine installments in three months,” Al-Khoraisi said.
“Then I went to the Kingdom on vacation and returned to the university on Sept. 9. Muyassara invited us for a treat to celebrate our return. When we arrived at the restaurant, which was close to a police station, he asked us to wait a moment and went to the police station. He returned with some policemen who took us forcibly to the station,” Al-Khoraisi said.
“At the police station,” Al-Khoraisi continued, “the officer told us that we are under arrest as the Mansourah court had sentenced us to three years in jail on charges of cheating the owner of an electrical shop.”
The sentence could not be appealed because Muyassara who was their legal representative had told the court that the two defendants confessed to their crime. So they remained under police custody.
The two Saudis were shocked by the fact that the owner of the shop had proceeded against them using the blank papers unsuspectingly signed by them.
“One of our friends informed the president of the university and the Saudi Embassy of our ordeal,” said Al-Khoraisi. They appointed two lawyers to pursue the matter. They appealed to the court to review the case based on the fact that the power of attorney was illegal according to the Egyptian law because we were under the age of 21. All the communications sent to us by the court were at a false address provided by Muyassara who was apparently betraying us.
“Soon the details of the betrayal were unveiled. The shop owner demanded us to pay him SR1 million to withdraw the case and release us from jail. But our lawyers threatened to take legal action against him for cheating minors and breach of trust. Then the owner reduced his demand to SR100,000 and then to 4,000 Egyptian pounds and finally signed the request to withdraw his complaint for nothing,” the student added.
Egyptian Home Minister Habib El-Adili has ordered an inquiry into dubious business deals of the shop owner and the lawyer, the newspaper said.
Loads of details missing in this case and I have a hard time really believing the story.
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