Cairo Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced Mohamed Ahdy Fadly, former CEO of the state-run Akhbar Al-Youm press organization, and advertisement official Hany Kamel to five years in prison for abusing their posts to make illegal gains.
The defendants’ lawyers had said the criminal accusations should be dropped because Fadly left his post three years ago. They said the illicit gains law stipulates that the suspect should undergo investigations while in office to be charged, which did not happen in Fadly’s case.
The lawyer had also dismissed charges that his client forged a work contract for Kamel, arguing that Kamel had signed a permanent contract through which he received “allowances” rather than a stable salary like permanent employees.
The lawyer had also claimed that the plaintiffs had a kinship with the organization’s human resources officials, which he said arouses suspicions of collusion.
Prosecutors had referred the pair to criminal court over charges of utilizing their workplace funds to draw illicit gains worth of about LE21 million.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
