Following On-Air Accusations, Egyptian Mogul Leaves the Country

Amid accusations of tax evasion, Egyptian business tycoon Ahmed Bahgat – the owner of Dream TV – alongside his wife and daughter had left the country Saturday afternoon heading to Zurich, Switzerland.

This comes in the light of the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s latest speech aired last Wednesday evening in which he had accused Mr. Bahgat of “attacking the administration (Morsi’s) instead of paying what they owe the state.”

The Islamist-led regime’s resistance this past week has focused on the media — at once the most obviously annoying institution, and the weakest and most vulnerable because it’s the most easily shut down. In a three hour speech on Wednesday evening, president Morsi said at one point that he had been insulted, lampooned and satirized for a year, but now enough was enough. He mentioned Mohamed Al Amir, owner of the CBC channel and Mr. Bahgat, owner of Dream TV, as men who were: “attacking the administration instead of paying what they owe the state.” Al Amir is now reportedly being sought for tax evasion on a grand scale.