Egypt court acquits former Mubarak-era PM

A top Egyptian court today acquitted former Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Nazif of graft and profiteering charges in a retrial.

63-year-old Nazif was charged of misusing his position as prime minister and involved in corruption with his family and gained about 64 million Egyptian pounds in the form of lands and apartments in Alexandria.

He was also accused of establishing an institution for child development and took 35 million Egyptian pounds as donation from government but it was later found to be fraud.

The former prime minister was convicted in 2012 of graft and profiteering and sentenced to three years in prison. He was also also fined of about 4.5 million Egyptian pounds and ordered to repay another 4.5 million Egyptian pounds for gaining millions during his period as prime minister.

The Cassation court today acquitted Nazif of graft and profiteering charges in a retrial.

He was imprisoned after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster and released in June 2013 because he had spent the maximum period in pre-trial detention for corruption charges.

In a retrial which took place in July 2015, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Nazif to five years in prison and he was also fined about 53.3 million Egyptian pounds. He and his late wife were ordered to repay another 48 million Egyptian pounds. But Nazif appealed the sentence again.

In February 2015, Nazif was acquitted in another graft case in which he and former interior minister Habib El-Adly had been sentenced to one year and five years in jail respectively over charges of illegal profiting and squandering public funds. Many other Mubarak-era figures have been cleared of corruption charges in recent months.