Egypt's steel magnate bags 10 years in jail - Cairo's Criminal Court (CCC) on Thursday sentenced steel tycoon and former top figure of the dissolved ruling National Democratic Party, Ahmed Ezz, to 10 years in prison on graft charges related to the illegal sale of steel licenses during President Hosni Mubarak's reign.

Amr Assal, the former chairman of the Egyptian industrial development authority, was also handed a 10-year jail sentence.

The CCC also fined Ezz and Assal approximately US$ 111 million and ordered their steel companies to hand back their licences.

Fleeing businessman Rasheed Mohamed Rasheed, the former minister of trade and industry, was sentenced to 15 years in absentia in the same case.

Rasheed was also fined US$ 233 million and ordered to refund the cost of steel licences he had helped grant two companies.

In June, Rasheed was also sentenced in absentia to ‎five years in jail after being convicted of embezzling public funds. ‎

The ruling, which was broadcast live on Egyptian Television, can be appealed.

On another front, CCC decided to resume on Saturday, the trial of Egypt's former minister of oil, Sameh Fahmy, along with his assistants, on corruption charges related to the wasting of public funds by exporting gas to Israel at prices way below international market standards, with more prosectution witnesses to deliver their testimonies.

The CCC has, meanwhile adjourned to 8 October, the trial of 25 former officials of the ousted regime on charges of inciting the killing of the January revolution protesters on 2 and 3 February, in what has been dubbed by media as the 'Camel Battle'.

The CCC has decided to ban live TV coverage of the Camel Battle's sessions, like the case in Mubarak's trial, citing national security as the reason.   

Pana 17/09/2011