Egypt’s Cairo Criminal Court sentenced the brother of Mubarak-era finance minister Youssef Botros Ghaly and others to 30 years in prison over two cases related to smuggling Egyptian artefacts to Europe.
The court also ordered that Botros Raouf Ghaly pay a fine of EGP 6 million ($382,130) in the cases, with the sentence coming nearly a month after a former Italian honorary consul received a jail term in absentia over the cases.
The sentences are not final and can be appealed.
Last January, an Egyptian court sentenced in absentia Italy's former honorary consul to 15 years in prison on charges of smuggling Egyptian artefacts to Europe.
Ladislav Otakar Skakal, the former honorary consul in Luxor, faced charges of smuggling around 22,000 artefacts from various historical periods from Egypt's Alexandria to the Italian port of Salerno with the help of Egyptian nationals, the Egyptian prosecutor-general said in September.
Investigations revealed that the artefacts were obtained by the former minister’s brother and shipped in a container under the name of the Italian consul, and so were not inspected due to diplomatic immunity, a judicial source said.
The artefacts, which date to various historical periods, were found by Italian police in May 2018 and returned to Egypt in late June.
The collection included coins, pottery vessels from different eras, sarcophagi parts and objects from the country’s Islamic period.
Short link: