Egypt Ex-Agriculture Minister Gets 10 Years for Graft
An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced a former agriculture minister to 10 years in prison for corruption, a judicial official said, months after his arrest for taking bribes.
Salah Helal had been detained in September after being told to step aside during a corruption scandal that prompted the entire government to resign a few days later.
His chief of staff Muhyidin Mohamed Said was also sentenced to 10 years. Helal was also fined one million Egyptian pounds ($112,600, 98,700 euros), and Said was fined 500,000 Egyptian pounds.
The businessman who paid the bribe, and another who facilitated it, were spared jail because they confessed, the official said.
Helal, 59, an agronomy graduate, rose through the ranks at the agriculture ministry to become minister in March 2015.
Helal and his chief of staff had been charged with having "requested and received" bribes from businessman Ayman al-Gamil -- via an intermediary -- to legalize the purchase of a property bought from the state.
The scandal prompted the resignation of prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab's government, with Ismail Sharif replacing him.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's administration has vowed to crack down on corruption.
Anti-graft watchdog Transparency International ranked Egypt 94th out of 175 nations on its corruption index in 2014.
It says it has been challenging to assess whether the level of graft has increased or declined because of the rapidly changing context since Egypt's 2011 revolution.
Last July, a court sentenced a former premier under ousted president Hosni Mubarak to five years in jail for corruption and fined him millions of dollars.
Ahmed Nazif, whom Mubarak sidelined to appease protesters during the revolution that ended his rule, was convicted in a retrial of having used his position to make a fortune of $8.2 million (7.5 million euros).
The court also fined him $6.8 million.
Nazif had been accused of corrupt property deals and receiving illegal payments.
Mubarak and many of his former ministers were put on trial following his overthrow amid popular demands for them to be held accountable for years of corruption.
Several former regime figures have been found not guilty in retrials, however.
In March, Mubarak's once feared interior minister Habib al-Adly was acquitted of corruption charges.
He was cleared of illegally accumulating around 181 million Egyptian pounds, and the court also lifted an asset freeze on him and members of his family.
Mubarak himself and his two sons Alaa and Gamal were sentenced to three years in prison in May last year for corruption.
Alaa and Gamal have been released because of time already served.
Source: Agence France Presse
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