Cairo Appeal Court has approved Monday a petition filed by Mubarak-era minster of information Anas El-Fiqqi and the former chief of state TV Osama El-Sheikh requesting their retrial before a different court.

Earlier in September, Cairo Criminal Court had sentenced El-Fiqqi to seven years in jail, while El-Sheikh was given a five-year jail sentence.

The former minister of information was charged with deliberately squandering public money through exempting Egyptian satellite channels from fees for broadcasting football matches during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons.

El-Fiqqi is accused of illicitly making LE12 million from the exemption.

The former state TV chief and head of the broadcast union is also charged with using his influential position to waste public money.

Both El-Fiqqi and El-Sheikh were arrested on 24 February last year as part of a probe into political corruption by members of president Hosni Mubarak’s regime.