The Court of Cassation adjourned till April 6 examining a challenge submitted by ex-prime minister Ahmed Nazif against the profiteering charges leveled against him.

The same court has accepted a previous challenge by Nazif against his five-year jail sentence over the same charges.

In July, Nazif was sentenced by the Cairo Criminal Court to five years in jail and was fined 53.35 million pounds after he filed an appeal over an initial three-year jail sentence over the same charges.

He was also ordered to repay 48.610 million pounds seized illegally by his wife Zeinab Zaki and his two sons Sherif and Khaled.

The sentence was toughened to a five-year jail after the Illicit Gains Authority appealed that the three-year imprisonment sentence is not commensurate with the deed. 

Nazif is accused of squandering EGP 64 million in public funds, by accepting illegal gifts from State-owned media institutions and forcing governmental bodies to make donations to a fake educational institution owned by him

Source: MENA