Former housing minister Mohamed Ibrahim Soliman (Photo: Reuters)
A Cairo criminal court has sentenced former Egyptian housing minister Mohamed Ibrahim Soliman to 8 years in prison on charges of squandering public funds and illegally allocating land.
Soliman was also fined LE2.18 billion ($360.9 million) for his part in two separate real estate deals.
The court also sentenced Magdy Rasekh, father-in-law of toppled president Hosni Mubarak's elder son Alla, to five years in absentia and fined him a total of LE2.34 billion for his connection with squandering funds.
Three further Soliman associates were found guilty on the same charge; Fouad Madbouy, Hassan Khaled, and Mohamed Abdel Dayem -- all former vice-chairmen of Egypt's New Urban Communities Authority. Each was handed a one-year suspended sentence and fined LE1.025 billion.
Businessmen Yehia El-Komy and Emad El-Hazeq were also found guilty on the second charge for their part in allowing the seizure of state lands.
It was alleged that the activities of Soliman and his deputies paved the way for Rasekh, board chairman at property developer SODIC until last year, to make illegal profits of LE907 million.
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