Is the new Ministry of State for Antiquities really under question about its inability to protect Egypt's great heritage? Nevine El-Aref unravels the latest twists in the plot to unseat the minister Ever since he was appointed to hold Egypt's archaeological portfolio as head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in 2002, Zahi has come under fire from one direction or another. He has been accused of smuggling antiquities, of offering priceless authentic jewellery to Mrs Suzanne Mubarak (wife of ex- president Hosni Mubarak), and of using Tutankhamun's furniture to promote his clothing range. , however, is determined not to let the mud stick, even when he and Mrs Mubarak stand accused of abusing their official positions and misappropriating public funds and even national artefacts. This latest allegation was submitted to the prosecutor-general, Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, by archaeologist Nour Abdel-Samad. Mahmoud in his turn has assigned the report for investigation by the Public Funds Prosecution. Abdel-Samad claims that , who became minister of state for antiquities in the interim government, had suggested during a TV talk show that the revenues of the touring Tutankhamun exhibition -- some $17 million -- was earmarked for Suzanne Mubarak's charity fund. This, according to Abdel-Samad, was unlawful since the charity was privately owned. He also accused of illegally signing a contract with the National Geographic Society to exhibit the unique collection of the 18th-Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in the United States and Australia. Abdel-Samad further alleges in his report that, according to the contract, the number and type of the artefacts sent abroad would not be documented until April 2012. The report claims that in 2002 the Egyptian Museum sent 143 artefacts from the Tutankhamun collection to be shown at an exhibition in Washington. It alleges that these have never been returned. Abdel-Samad is not the only person to have submitted accusations against and former culture minister Farouk Hosni since the January uprising. They have both been charged with smuggling Egyptian antiquities on behalf of the Mubarak family. In an interview on the Al-Wafd newspaper's website, Abdel-Samad alleged that eight years ago enabled a group of Zionists and suspected Jewish-Zionist organisations, such as National Geographic, to enter the Egyptian Museum and mishandle ancient Egyptian mummies. He also told the newspaper that the antiquities authority had directed several projects -- at a cost of billions of Egyptian pounds -- which in the end turned out to be completely fictitious. As a result, the antiquities authority's bank balance is currently nil. According to investigations, however, these accusations could be untrue. told Al-Ahram Weekly that the accusations in Al-Wafd were unfounded and nonsensical. He said it was insulting to aim abusive language at him without any evidence to confirm such claims. The Weekly has seen copies of documents recording dozens of disciplinary decisions taken against Abdel-Samad. The documents reveal that his salary was withdrawn and that he was suspended from duty and sent before a disciplinary court. Abdel-Samad began working at the SCA, now the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), in 1987. He wrote frequent complaints and filed lawsuits against colleagues and others, which he later withdrew when he found that he lacked sufficient evidence to pursue the charges. Six years ago a disciplinary court ruled against Abdel-Samad and banned him from working for two months after he reported that a gold artefact of little value, one of many discovered in Marina by a Polish excavation mission, was missing from the Marina archaeological site. He claimed that rats had gnawed through a wooden box in which the object was stored, and this had led to the loss. The case was referred to the prosecutor-general in 2004 and investigations were carried out. In a further twist, in 2005 Abdel-Samad was banned from working for two months by the disciplinary court for negligence. The object is still missing and the case still before the court. has accused other critics of taking the opportunity of his absence while he travelled to the United States -- he was sent by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to deliver lectures on archaeology in an attempt to promote tourism -- to spread a rumour that he had escaped the country because of an existing court ruling against him. The ruling, handed down in April, gave a one-year prison sentence and a fine of LE10,000. The ruling was overturned on appeal last week. Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, general supervisor of the office of the antiquities minister, told the Weekly that all the accusations against and Mrs Mubarak were unfounded and untrue. "I am pretty sure now that there is an organised campaign bent on broadcasting false information about Egyptian antiquities in order to tarnish Egypt's international reputation and show the ministry is unable to preserve its heritage," Abdel-Maqsoud said, adding that the campaign only served personal gain and settled personal scores. He said the ministry had all the documents needed to prove that all the objects from Egyptian collections that had been sent abroad on temporary exhibition had been returned apart from the Queen Cleopatra exhibition now in the United States and the two Tutankhamun exhibitions, one in Minnesota and the other in Melbourne, both scheduled to stay until 2012. He said the objects could not leave the country haphazardly, but had to travel according to rules and regulations and by means of ministerial decrees that approved and smoothed the passage of such exhibitions. Abdel-Maqsoud confirmed that all the revenue from the Tutankhamun exhibition had been allocated to the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Plateau, and to the Children's Archaeological Museum in Heliopolis. He rebutted claims that the proceeds had been directed into Suzanne Mubarak's charity fund, as Abdel-Samad claimed. "The MSA is under a campaign of abuse and that all the material published in the news is false and unfounded," he said, adding that: "The MSA has nothing to hide and it is ready to respond to all false allegations with evidence and proof, showing the transparency of Egypt's archaeological work."
