Juhayna’s Founder and CEO Safwan Thabet and His Son Released From Prison

Founder and former CEO of Juhayna Food Industries, Safwan Thabet, and his son Seif El-Din, were released from prison on Saturday, 21 January after two years in detention.

The news of the release was first shared by his daughter, Mariam Safwan Thabet, who regularly posted updates on social media of their detention, actively advocating for their release.

In the post-release photographs shared by Mariam on social media, Safwan and Seifeldin Thabet were embraced by family members.

The two businessmen were accused of belonging to and funding a terrorist organisation, which is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Additionally, their charges included assisting attacks on the army and police troops as well as their institutions, with the intention of destroying the country’s economy.

Thabet family’s have denied the accusations on multiple occasions.

Thabet was arrested and kept in pretrial detention in December 2020, and two months later in February 2021, his son was also arrested.

Their arrest coincided with the arrests of other prominent businessmen, including Egyptian business mogul Sayed Ragab El-Sewerky, the owner of El-Tawheed and El-Nour department stores.

Egyptian company Juhayna Dairy was founded in 1983, initially producing dairy products and juice. Later in 2004, the company was merged into Juhayna Food Industries after its acquisition of five industrial companies, including a company for sales and logistics, and a company for managing agricultural and animal products.

As of the date of this article, no official statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Interior was published on the release.