5 years imprisonment for a man and his wife for possessing more than 1,300 antiquities

Today, Saturday, an Egyptian court sentenced a man and his wife to 5 years in prison, after it was proven that they possessed and traded antiquities in their home in Zamalek, in the center of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in a case that preoccupied Egyptian public opinion, known in the media as “Ali Baba’s Cave.”
Cairo – Sputnik. According to the Egyptian Middle East News Agency, “The Cairo Criminal Court, in its session held today, Saturday, sentenced two defendants to five years in prison for convicting them of trafficking in antiquities, in the case that became famous in the media in the Zamalek apartment, and also imposed a fine of one million pounds each and confiscation of the seized items.”
The Egyptian Public Prosecution had referred the accused to the criminal trial, last February, at the conclusion of investigations that showed that the owner of the Zamalek apartment and his wife, the defendants in the case, “used to buy, sell and exchange antiquities, and they owned 1,384 antiquities dating back to different eras of Egyptian civilization.” The ancient and Islamic eras and the era of the Muhammad Ali family (between the early nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century), which are subject to legal protection and are not registered with the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and were not notified of their registration within the legally prescribed period, with their knowledge of its antiquities.
Prosecution investigations revealed that the defendants also hid 119 pieces of “Muhammad Ali’s family” property, which the Revolutionary Command Council issued a decision to confiscate on November 8, 1953.

The evidence against the accused included the testimonies of 16 witnesses, including the guards of the property in the apartment, one of the accused’s neighbors, and the agent of the Antiquities Investigations Department conducting the investigations, as well as what the Public Prosecution found from examining the apartment and its accumulated artifacts that were found by the Execution Department of the South Cairo Court In addition to what the Public Prosecution was able to seize from other artifacts and important documents in the apartment after emptying it from the accumulation.
The Egyptian Public Prosecution indicated that it established the evidence before the defendants from the testimony of the members of the Antiquities Committee that had previously ordered its formation headed by the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and its reports regarding the examination of the seized artifacts, and the important documents found by the Public Prosecution, in addition to what was proven from the statement of the Supreme Council of Antiquities that The seized artifacts are not registered with him, and the accused are not registered as antiquities holders.
The facts of the case, which is considered one of the largest incidents of antiquities trafficking in Egypt, go back to June 2021, when a force to enforce the rulings was discovered during its implementation of a judicial ruling to seize it, against the son of the apartment owner, the presence of hundreds of antiquities inside the apartment, so the Public Prosecution was informed that The antiquities were preserved, and a committee of the Public Prosecution office, comprising specialists in the field of antiquities, was assigned to examine the artifacts.
This case was known in the media as the case of “Zamalek Apartment” or “Ali Baba’s Cave” due to the size of the artifacts that were found inside the apartment.