Egypt court sentences former PM to three years for corruption News
Egypt court sentences former PM to three years for corruption
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[JURIST] An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Nazif to three years in prison after finding him guilty of corruption charges. Nazif was accused of embezzling $10.5 million while in office. This most recent conviction will add to a previous corruption conviction in which he was found to have illegally profited [AFP report] from a license plate agreement with a German business partner. Nazif served as prime minister under ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] from 2004 until 2011. He left office just before the 2011 uprising and was replaced by Ahmed Shafiq, who is also facing corruption charges [JURIST report] associated with his time in office.

Nazif is one of the many former politicians under Mubarak’s regime who are facing corruption charges. Last week former culture minister Farouq Hosni was accused of illegally obtaining 27 million Egyptian pounds (USD $4.5 million) during his term as culture minister. In August the former secretary for Mubarak’s political party, Safwat El-Sherif, was referred to a criminal court [JURIST report] on corruption charges. He was accused of having abused his office by obtaining real estate at discounted prices and illegally obtaining $49.2 million. In July an Egyptian court rejected pleas to release [JURIST report] Mubarak’s two sons while they await trial. Their lawyer argued that his clients are detained unlawfully because they were arrested for a misdemeanor and not for a felony which would allow authorities to detain an individual only up to six months, a term that the Mubaraks already served. Gamal and Alaa Mubarak, along with seven others, were charged with stock market fraud [JURIST report] and using unfair trading practices and illegally manipulating the market.