The Giza Criminal Court sentenced former Menoufia Governor Hisham Abdel Basset to 10 years in prison and fined him EGP15 million for accepting a bribe of over EGP27.45 million.
It also acquitted two other defendants in the same case.
Attorney General Nabil Ahmed Sadek referred the defendants to a criminal trial at the conclusion of investigations initiated by the Supreme State Security Prosecution.
The two defendants who were brought to the criminal trial, along with Abdel Basset, are Ahmed Said Mubarak, the mediator in bribery, and Egyptian businessman Essam Ahmed Fathi, who gave the bribe.
Investigations by the Administrative Control Authority revealed that the governor took bribes from the owner of a private company.
Investigations and recordings of telephone conversations and video conferences proved that Abdel Basset tasked the implementation of a construction project, due to be implemented by a public sector company, to Fathi, who offered the governor a bribe through a mediator.
The public sector company also authorized the second defendant to pay its dues, and the third defendant, Said, mediated to provide bribes to the first defendant by buying a number of cars and renovating and furnishing two housing units in Al-Mohandiseen and Alexandria.
Investigations revealed that the governor has allocated four construction projects for the governorate at an estimated cost of EGP5.61 million, whereas the actual cost of the four projects is only EGP12 million.
The Abdel Basset received bribes worth EGP5.27 million from those projects.
He has the right to challenge the ruling before the Court of Cassation, the country's highest civil court.
