Cases of the Famous Businessman, Salah Diab, owner of PICO Group and Al-Masry Al-Youm Newspaper
PICO Group, owned by the famous businessman Salah Diab, which involves companies working in fields of agriculture, petroleum, tourism, engineering and construction, is one of the most important economic groups in Egypt. In relation to its contracts and expansions in various projects and activities, it appointed Dr. Mohamed Hamoda, legal advisor to many international and Egyptian financial institutions, to be the legal advisor of the Group, who has achieved many successes of the Group by his presence and supervision of all international agreements and contracts concluded by the Group with foreign financial companies and institutions, including oil exploration agreements and partnership agreements in the field of construction and contracting.
Dr. Hamoda's role did not come to an end; he pleaded in the crime of bribery and profiteering that affected some of the employees of the group. He was able to obtain a decision to keep the charges against them after the investigations of the Public Prosecution, which lasted for quite some time. According to law, the penalty of those charges is extreme confinement. Due to the wisdom of Dr. Mohamed Hamoda, they would be referred to the Criminal Court.
In October 2011, the period of security chaos after the revolution of January 25, there was a fight in front of Villa Salah Diab and a large number of people gathered in front of the villa, threw stones and gunfire, broke into the villa and stole its contents. Salah Diab resorted immediately to Dr. Mohammed Hamoda, who immediately contacted the senior leaders of the interior and the army. A military police force was sent to remove the crowd. The businessman / Salah Diab and his son Tawfiq were accused of possessing firearms and ammunition without a license. Due to the sensitivity of the political circumstances that the country undergoes towards businessmen, Dr. Hamoda presented before the Public Prosecution to attend the investigations and answer all the charges against Salah Diab and his son. For more than one consecutive hearing, Dr. Hamoda was able to obtain a decision from the Attorney General to inspect the villa to indicate the damage and to hear the statements of the witnesses. A team from the Public Prosecutor's Office moved to conduct the examination and the charges against the son of the businessman / Salah Diab were saved instead of being referred to the criminal court. The charges were brought only to businessman Salah Diab. In the pleading hearing, he submitted the documents that deny the charge of the businessman and pleaded several hours in front of the criminal court that ruled on the basis of legal arguments and documents submitted by Dr. Hamoda and acquitted Salah Diab of the charge attributed to him.