The Giza Criminal Court on Monday convicted former Menoufia Governor Hisham Abdel Basset over corruption charges and acquitted two defendants in the same case.
The court sentenced Basset to 10 years in prison and fined him LE 15 million for ordering a bribe of LE 27.45 million.
In March, Attorney General Nabil Ahmed Sadek referred the defendants to a criminal trial for receiving and mediating a bribe between the governor and owners of a construction company.
According to the investigations, the governor would have taken the money for allocating construction projects to the company of the businessmen without proper bidding.
The Administrative Control Authority (ACA) arrested Basset and the two other businessmen for corruption charges back in January.
Officers of the ACA arrested the governor and the businessmen during the delivery of a bribe, and they were then referred to the prosecution. The investigations proved the former governor’s involvement in the illegal allocation of a land plot for two businessmen in exchange for bribes.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
