Authored by: Marwa Ahmed
Asset forfeiture is a legal precautionary procedure that ensures access to a person’s funds in case he is charged with misappropriation of public funds, treason, crimes related to funds owned by the state, public institutions and agencies or their affiliate departments let alone public juridic persons.
When applying this tool, the law has set many guarantees, as it is critical to seize the money of a convicted person as a precautionary measure. Therefore, those guarantees are crucial, and missing one of them renders the procedure invalid and illegal. It even loses its legal designation as forfeiture. It could then be named anything other than Asset Forfeiture allowed as an exception on the general rule of money immunity.
This study discusses the Egyptian model in asset forfeiture and how the Egyptian government dealt with persons convicted with political charges, either by forfeiting their money or by depositing them in the state treasury. According to the laws and procedures recently introduced for the so-called ‘fighting terrorism’, are they legal measures to maintain the state funds and eliminate terrorism? Are they attempts to debilitate political opponents, nationalize their properties, and provide coverage for the state’s economic crises?
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