• 14:51
  • Wednesday ,03 September 2014
العربية

Hussein Salem sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison

By Aswat Masriya

Home News

00:09

Wednesday ,03 September 2014

Hussein Salem sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison

An Egyptian court sentenced in absentia on Tuesday fugitive businessman Hussein Salem and his two sons to 10 years in prison on charges of intentional damage to their work and selling electricity to non-public authority, which violates the law.

The court also fined all defendants with 11,125,89 million Egyptian pounds.

Salem is currently being tried over three other charges related to exporting gas to Israel, and profiteering from his relation with toppled President Hosni Mubarak and illegal acquisition of land in Luxor.

Salem has been sentenced to 15 years in prison following his conviction of graft charges.

But Spain’s Supreme Court retracted all decisions to hand over Salem, who was accused of money laundry, to Egypt in December 2012. Salem has appealed to the court that he holds the Spanish nationality and all the charges attributed to him are rather of a political nature than a legal one.

In July, Salem agreed to negotiate with the Public Funds Prosecution the handing over of 75 percent of his assets and properties inside Egypt to the government and 55 percent of his assets outside the country and in return the government would not move any lawsuits against him.

But these negotiations have not reached a final agreement, according to the state-owned news agency MENA.