Legal state of Monufia governor after being sentenced to 10 years

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Sun, 18 Nov 2018 - 09:54 GMT

BY

Sun, 18 Nov 2018 - 09:54 GMT

The first court hearing of Menoufia governor, Hesham Abdel Baset and two businessmen kicked off June 9, 2018 over corruption charges - Egypt Today

The first court hearing of Menoufia governor, Hesham Abdel Baset and two businessmen kicked off June 9, 2018 over corruption charges - Egypt Today

CAIRO – 18 November 2018: A judicial court in Giza sentenced Nov. 12 former Monufia Governer Hesham Abdel Baset to 10 years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of LE 15 million.

The two other defendants in the case were found not guilty and the money seized from them was returned.

Egypt Today monitors the legal state of the governor in light of the developments of the case:

The verdict against the governor is a first-degree ruling. The court will disclose the reasons for its verdict in the next few weeks.

The Court of Cassation shall set a hearing session to hear the appeal of the defendant if the appeal is accepted, but in case the appeal is rejected, the judgment shall be rendered final.

The three defendants were charged with taking bribes worth LE 27 million, LE 450,000 of which were in exchange for implementing a set of projects under the government’s supervision.

Abdel Baset and two businessmen were arrested in January 2018 after the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) managed to record phone calls proving the governor agreed to take LE 2 million as a bribe in return for land licenses.

According to security sources, the governor was under the ACA’s surveillance until he was detected to be involved in a number of corruption cases. The ACA then referred the governor to public prosecution for investigation.

President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi always asserted on applying strict measures within the government institutions to crack down any violation. He hailed the role played by the ACA in different occasions.

Egypt ranked 117th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2017 Corruption Perception Index, scoring 32 points, down two points compared to 2016. A score of zero is highly corrupt while 100 is very clean.

Transparency International, the leading civil society organization fighting corruption worldwide, released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index in February.

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