A former Egyptian MP said to be the ringleader of an international smuggling gang is facing charges of excavating and trafficking antiquities following his arrest by security agencies. Alaa Hassanein, a flamboyant former member of President Hosni Mubarak’s now-dissolved National Democratic Party, was among 18 people arrested on Thursday on charges of illegal excavation and smuggling of 201 Pharaonic, Greek and Roman artefacts, the Interior Ministry revealed. Alaa Hassanein was ...