So far, none of the foreigners in the case have formally been charged with any crime. Last Thursday, a French law firm, Vey & Associés, which once represented Julian Assange, issued a statement complaining about their detention and contradicting some important details about the bust as described by Zambian authorities.

Speculation is now rife regarding the identity of the sixth Egyptian national who has been detained. Given the prolonged secrecy, it is widely believed he must be someone extremely important, and opposition media outlets are claiming he has connections to the President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s son Mahmoud, deputy head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate.

Friends in high places

Another close Sisi ally who has been linked to the plane is Ibrahim al-Arjani. Last week, Zambian and Egyptian independent media — separately, unofficially and without any confirmation — both named him as the sixth man. Arjani appeared in Egyptian state media last Wednesday however, so this theory has now been discredited.

Nevertheless, many links between Arjani and the Zambia plane have been uncovered, showing that even though he is not the sixth man, he used the plane in the past. In April, Arjani’s son posted a picture of him and his father standing in front of what appears to be the same plane. The plane was also photographed last year at Sharm El-Sheikh Airport, which is in South Sinai.

Born and raised in Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai, Ibrahim al-Arjani is a wealthy businessman and notorious warlord who heads the Tarabin Bedouin tribe in Sinai. The tribe works closely with intelligence services in Sinai and Gaza. In recent months, he has been allowed to play an increasingly prominent diplomatic function. In May he not only participated in bilateral security talks in Libya, but he chaired some of the meetings. Another sign of his influence came last year when Arjani became the major sponsor of Egypt’s premier football club Al Ahly, a move denounced by the opposition as sportswashing.

According to Haaretz, Egypt is careful that all its reconstruction work in Gaza is done through Arjani’s company — not by the Egyptian army — even if the army is supervising the work. In 2021, Haaretz reported that “Arjani, who owns some of the largest construction firms in Egypt, takes his orders from Egyptian intelligence — and also a big cut of Egypt’s aid to Gaza, and from the movement of goods from Egypt into Gaza, mostly those that pass through the Saladin checkpoint in Rafah.”

A ham-handed cover-up

So far, there has been no official comment from Sisi or any other high-level regime member about the Zambia gold plane, let alone any sign of an investigation or anyone being held accountable.

But while the truth about what was going on remains unknown, top security officials being detained by an African police service with allegedly fake gold, in a plane used frequently by the security services, is a heavy blow to the regime and it is likely to have far-reaching consequences, especially given the acute economic crisis.

State media was obviously not ready for what happened. The Sinai Tribes Union published a hasty denial that neither it nor any Egyptian businessmen were involved in any smuggling. The tweet was deleted a short time later.

At least two other regime websites  —  Al-Masry Al-Youm and Cairo24  — also took down their articles about the plane a few hours after they were published.

Middle East News Agency published a report asserting that according to “an informed source,” the plane is a “private plane, and it was subject to inspection and ensuring that it meets all safety and security rules.” This was promptly contradicted by the BBC, which said that planes in transit in Cairo are not inspected.

Caught with its pants down, the regime’s anger and humiliation has prompted it to revert to what it knows best: arresting journalists and blaming the Muslim Brotherhood. Just like in the Covid crisis, when the regime turned on doctors, politicians, journalists and other prominent public figures, regime propagandists have attacked Matsda2sh and Sahih Masr as being “affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

On August 19, Matsda2sh published an urgent press release saying its platform had been subjected to a “coordinated attack” leading to a “serious breach of security.” A day later, two of its journalists were detained in Cairo without charge, before being released on Sunday. The investigation continues.

[Arab Digest first published this piece.]

[Anton Schauble edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.