A Cairo criminal court has found Anas El-Fiqi, former minister of information, and Youssef Boutros Ghali, former minister of finance, not guilty of misappropriation of state funds.
The two were standing trial on charges of using government money to fund propaganda for ousted president Mubarak's political party, the National Democratic Party (NDP).
The court also found Ahmed El-Maghrabi, former minster of housing, and Adli Fadli, the CEO of the Akhbar Al Yyoum media organisation, not guilty of illegal profiteering. They were accused of abusing their ministerial powers to sell 13 acres of government-owned land to one of Egypt's major property developers, Palm Hills.
An Egyptian court also sentenced former Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid in absentia to five years in prison for squandering public funds.
Rachid and two other business executives, Helmi Abul-Eish and Adham Nadim, were also fined LE2 million ($335,800) each and ordered to pay the same amount again in compensation to the state.
Abul-Eish, the former head of the Industrial Modernisation Centre was given one year in prison on a suspended sentence.
Former head of state TV Osama El-Sheikh was set free pending investigations for squandering public money in buying TV series during Ramadan.
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