Cairo Criminal Court postponed issuing a verdict on Wednesday in the retrial of former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly over accusations of corruption related to bids of importing license plates to 28 April to submit new documents to prosecution.
Nazif had said he approved the new license plate project, which started between 2005-2007 to prevent terrorist operations using stolen vehicles.
During his pleading at the court, Nazif said his consent followed approvals by several advisers.
“The reason behind my presence at the court is violating article no. 7 of the bids law. However, no one tackled the article no. 8 of the same law which does not ordered the prime minister to show the reasons. It states that ministries of defense and military production can have direct agreements and that prime minister can authorize specific authority to sign contracts through bids. He can also approve contracts on issues of national security,” he added.
On 13 July 2011, the criminal court had previously given Nazif a suspended sentence of one year in prison, while Adly received five years in prison and former Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali 10 years in absentia.
The legal representative of the German license plate manufacturer, UTSCH, also received a suspended sentence of one year in prison. It also ordered them return LE92 million and fined them with the same amount. Court of Cassation accepted the challenge of the suspects against the verdict.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
