The Giza Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced former Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and former Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali to 10 years in prison for selling the protected nature reserve of Bayadeya Island in Luxor, thereby squandering more than LE700 million of public funds.
The court also sentenced Ahmed Abdel Fattah, Wali’s former legal advisor, Hussein Salem, the fugitive owner of the Crocodile Tourism Project Company that bought the island, and his fugitive son Khaled, managing director of the company, to 15 years in prison, and Saeed Abdel Fattah, former director of the Agriculture Ministry’s state property, to three years.
The court ordered the defendants to pay back LE796 million, the value of the squandered funds, in addition to another equal amount in fines.
