Thirty-one Convicted in Egyptian Bank Corruption Case
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Egypt has witnessed a flood of corruption cases involving prominent public figures lately |
CAIRO,
August 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Cairo court sentenced
31 Egyptians, including an ex-tourism minister and four other former
parliamentarians, to prison terms of up to 15 years Wednesday, July
31, for expediting or receiving some 200 million dollars in improper
loans, court sources said.
The
state security court sentenced 16 of the defendants to 15 years each,
seven to 12 years, two to 10 years, four to seven years, and two more
to five years, all with labor, in the so-called “loan deputies”
case, the sources said.
Eleven
of the defendants were sentenced in absentia, while a final defendant
died while proceedings were under way.
The
defendants included former minister of tourism Tewfiq Abdu Ismail and
four of his parliamentary colleagues in the ruling National Democratic
Party, as well as bank officials and businessmen, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
The
charges, which included misappropriation of public funds and
embezzling from banks, stem from the improper issuance of bank loans
listed in investigators’ reports as totaling 892 million Egyptian
pounds (200 million dollars), the sources said.
In
2000, a court sentenced the 31 defendants to sentences of up to 15
years after a three year trial, but the verdicts were annulled in 2001
by the appellate Cassation Court.
Egypt
has witnessed a flood of corruption cases involving prominent public
figures through the courts in recent months.
In
July, the head of state television’s news department, accused of
accepting a 2,000 dollar bribe to put a doctor on his chat show, was
referred to a state security court for trial, AFP reported.
The
same month, the country’s biggest corruption case opened before the
same court with 20 people, including the head of a public smelter
company, accused of involvement in the theft of some 302 million
dollars.
The
former governor of south Cairo’s Giza district, Maher al-Guendi, was
sentenced to seven years in jail for accepting bribes on June 5.
In
May 2002, state prosecutor Maher Abdel Wahad told reporters that
parliamentarians Hussein el-Uwess and Baha Eddine Meligui would face
trial along with 17 other people for embezzlement and falsification.
And
former finance minister Mohieddin al-Gharib, who held office from
1996-1999, was sentenced in late February 2002 to eight years in
prison for embezzling public funds.
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