First acquittals in former Egyptian ministers' corruption trials

Rachid Mohamed Rachid was one of the ministers acquitted

An Egyptian court has acquitted three former Egyptian ministers, who were being tried on charges of squandering public funds, on 5th July.

There have been a number of trials since the downfall of former president Hosni Mubarak in February, but these were the first not guilty verdicts.

The three charged were former finance minister Youssef Boutros Ghali, former information minister Anas Al-Fikki, and former trade minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid.

Boutros Ghali has already been sentenced to 30 years in jail on profiteering charges, while Rachid was sentenced to five years for unlawfully seizing public money from a government export development fund.

Both men also received sizeable fines in their first trials, and they are being investigated under further charges.

Al-Fikki still faces charge that he deliberately misused funds from the state-run Radio and Television Union.

The BBC quoted one of the minister's lawyers saying Tuesday's ruling proved that the country had maintained its “judicial integrity”.

In a separate ruling, former housing minister Ahmed Maghrabi and Yasseen Mansour, the chairman of Palm Hills Developments, were both acquitted of graft.

Palm Hills is Egypt's second-largest listed developer and its shares, after falling 63 per cent this year, rose by 10 per cent following Tuesday's verdict.

Maghrabi has been sentenced to five years in prison over a separate, illegal land deal.

Mansour, Maghrabi and two other Palm Hills executives were accused on improperly arranging the sale of the land in Sixth of October city on the outskirts of Cairo, and its later transfer to Palm Hills.

Mansour's defence team had offered to make up any shortfall in the price paid for the state land.

Palm Hills received a separate court ruling in April that a state land sale to Palm Hills was illegal and must be scrapped.

But Hamdy Fakharany, the engineer who filed the case, said last week he would not seek further litigation after the government appealed the ruling. He said it showed the government was not dedicated to fighting corruption.

Tuesday's decisions prompted a protest outside the courthouse, and Al-Jazeera suggested that the results could prompt more people to join a protest in Tahrir Square on Friday 8th July that activists have been planning for weeks.

The uprising that ousted Mubarak was driven in part by widespread anger at corruption, and the trials of Mubarak and his former associates is being seen as a test of the new government's will to change.

Egypt's general prosecutor announced that he would be appealing the rulings shortly after they were made on Tuesday.

Sources: Al-Jazeera, BBC News, Reuters

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