The Cairo Appeals Court has announced that  the retrial of Mubarak-era petroleum minister Sameh Fahmy and five former officials from that ministry in the Egypt-Israel gas case will start on 29 July.

Fahmy, along with fugitive business tycoon Hussein Salem who is currently in Spain, had been sentenced to 15 years in jail in June 2012 for squandering public funds in a gas deal with Israel.

In March, the Court of Cassation ordered Fahmy’s retrial, and released the former minister after 23 months spent in custody. 

Egypt agreed to provide Israel with natural gas in 2005 in a 20-year deal built on the landmark 1979 peace accords. Prosecutors claimed the agreement cost Egypt over $714 million.

Salem, a founding shareholder of East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG) which supplied Israel with gas from June 2008, was accused of collaborating with EMG to profit from gas deals with Israel.

Egypt unilaterally terminated its natural gas export contract with Israel in April 2012.