Personal History
Youssef Nada was born on May 17, 1931 in Alexandria, Egypt. In his late teens, Nada became affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Between 1952–54, Nada was imprisoned with 30,000 Members of the Muslim Brotherhood in a desert-based Egyptian military concentration camp. Many persons imprisoned in this camp were tortured. After release, Nada returned to University (in Alexandria) and began a business with a friend, producing milk.
In the last 1950s, Nada moved to Europe, setting in Austria, and began working with a cheese factory in Graz. In 1961 a close friend of Nada invited him to Libya where a construction boom was developing. Nada seized on the occasion and started to spend his time between Libya and Austria. In a matter of a few years he became the largest supplier of cement to the North African country. The activity led him to partner with Cementir, the Italian cement maker, to develop in 1965 the world's first floating cement silos, two barges named GI-1 and GD-2 able to store bulk cement and loaded with bagging facilities. Cement soon became his main business along with smaller operations in other commodities ranging from steel to agriculturals. Nada had tremendous business success in his ventures with Saudi Arabia, Libya and eventually, the Nigerian government.
During the 1960s, the Egyptian government fell back into conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood. Youssef Nada became one of the members wanted by the Egyptians. This led to Nada settling permanently in Europe.
By 2001, the time of the accusations for which he became famous, Nada was resident of Italy. He lived in Campione, a small Italian 'enclave' adjacent to the Swiss town of Ticino . The nature of the situation logistics of Campione made traversal of Swiss territory imperative, a situation which led to eventual legal entanglement with the Swiss government. This as a by-product of the applicability of the UN sanctions to all UN Member-states, including Switzerland. Youssef Nada gagne son procès contre la Suisse, Le Matin, 12 September 2012
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