Egyptian court annuls imprisonment of ex-PM Hesham Qandil

An Egyptian court has accepted the appeal presented by former Prime Minister Hesham Qandil and reversed his one-year jail sentence and the decision to dismiss him from his job.

Qandil was accused of refusing to implement a ruling ordering the re-nationalisation of the Tanta Flax and Oil Company.

His defence confirmed, before the Court of Cassation, his adherence to the reasons mentioned in the cassation memorandum to annul the decision to imprison him for one year and dismiss him from his job. The reasons in question are: the issuance of an incorrect decision in terms of law enforcement, the corruption in the search for condemning the former prime minister, the violation of the right of the defence, and the violation of the established facts.”

The Dokki Misdemeanor Court, headed by Judge Mohammed Al-Sawi, had sentenced the former prime minister to one year in prison and a bail of 2,000 Egyptian pounds, as well as his dismissal from office in the case of Tanta Flax and Oil Company, because he didn’t implement a court ruling.

The case indictment explained that Qandil failed to implement an administrative court’s verdict ordering the re-nationalisation of the Tanta Flax and Oil Company, and the return of their workers to their former conditions prior to the privatisation process, as well as the invalidity of the company’s sale to the Saudi businessman Abdullah Kaki.

A number of Tanta Flax and Oil Company’s workers had initiated a lawsuit claiming that the prime minister failed to implement the judgment of the administrative court which invalidated the privatisation of the company, without giving reasons.