Africa

Africa

Egypt court sentences ex-trade minister to 5 years in jail

25 June 2011 16:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. An Egyptian court convicted former Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid in absentia on Saturday and sentenced him to 5 years in prison for profiteering and squandering public funds, the state news agency MENA said, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.

Rachid, a regular at the World Economic Forum in Davos, lost his job in late January and fled abroad, only days after the eruption of the mass uprising that later ousted Hosni Mubarak.

He was an important face for Egypt in the commodities market as former minister of trade overseeing global wheat prices in the world’s biggest wheat-importing country.

The Cairo court ruled that Rachid unlawfully seized public money from a government export development fund, leading to a waste of public funds, MENA said.

The court also ordered him to pay 9.385 million Egyptian pounds ($1.57 million) in fines, MENA added. A judicial source told Reuters the court further ordered the former minister to return a similar amount.

Egyptian prosecutors filed formal charges against former officials and businessmen of abusing their position to enrich themselves and misusing public money after the uprising that toppled Mubarak in February.

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