Ashraf El-Ashmawi

Ashraf El-Ashmawi is a judge in the Egyptian court of appeal and a former examining magistrate in the department of the public prosecutor, where he worked for seventeen years. Seven years ago, he was seconded as legal advisor to the Ministry of Antiquities, advising on bilateral international agreements and the return of antiquities smuggled out of the country. He is the author of numerous studies on crime prevention and has been a regular contributor of articles to newspapers and websites since 2009, writing on the history of Egyptian antiquities and social and political criticism of the state of Egyptian society. This is his second literary work after the publication of his first novel The Time of the Hyenas. He recently published a book entitled Legal Thefts: Stories of Thefts of Egyptian Antiquities, Their Smuggling and Attempts to Recover Them.