Egypt Daily News – The State Litigation Authority in Egypt announced the issuance of a ruling in the arbitration case filed by the International Group for Holding Projects and other Kuwaiti claimants against Egypt before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) affiliated with the World Bank in Washington.
The State Litigation Authority stated in a statement that it was able, on behalf of the Egyptian state, to refute most of the claims made by the litigants, resulting in a ruling to reduce the compensation to less than 1% of the amount demanded. Thus, the public treasury avoided a loss of more than 8 billion dollars, which is the value of the damages that the claimants alleged they incurred in this dispute.
The authority added: “The plaintiffs claimed that their investments in ‘Egypt Gulf for Development and Investment’ have been harmed, as the project’s goal was to reclaim 26,000 feddans in the Al-Ayyat area, with a value exceeding 8 billion dollars.”
The State Litigation Authority confirmed that, under this ruling, the procedures for annulment and the recovery of an area of 26,000 feddans in the Al-Ayyat region of Giza Governorate are valid, placing it in the possession of the Egyptian state by virtue of a final international ruling.
It continued: “This arbitration battle lasted seven years, during which the authority faced numerous difficulties and challenges in defending the Egyptian state.”
The events of the case date back to 2002 when the Egyptian government, by a decision from former President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, agreed to grant ownership of this land to the Egyptian-Kuwaiti Company for Development and Investment for agricultural use at a price of 200 Egyptian pounds per feddan. Kuwaiti investors own 90% of the Egyptian-Kuwaiti Company for Development and Investment.
