A photo dated 19 January 2011 shows the then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (L) talking to his Chief of the Presidential Staff Zakaria Azmi (R)
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO - A heavy sentence has been handed down for one of the highest-ranking members of the Mubarak era, while expectations are growing for elections results and appeals and complaints over irregularities in Egypt's first presidential elections after the fall of the former leader are raining down.
The prospect of polarisation with the choice between the old regime and an Islamist state have caused the stock exchange to plunge, with the second worst result since 2012. Yesterday a criminal court in Cairo handed down a sentence of seven years in prison and a fine of over 4 million euros to the former head of Mubarak's cabinet, Zakaria Azmi, found guilty of embezzlement and abuse of power. Azmi, since 1989 one of the former leader's closest collaborators and of whom it was said Mubarak would never let himself be seen in public without him at his side, was also a high-level figure in the now-dissolved National Democratic Party, which held power for 30 years. The sentence is only the latest in a long line of those against members of the old regime. Former Interior Minister Habib El Adly was sentenced to five years in jail for the same crimes, and former Finance Minister Youssef Boutrous Ghali to ten as part of the same trial, while former Tourism Minister Zoher Garana got 5 years in prison for the below-cost sale of land to two entrepreneurs for the building of tourist resorts in Hurghada on the Red Sea coast. Fifteen years were given to Rashid Mohamed Rashid, former Trade Minister, who has taken refuge in London like Boutros Ghali, and ten to Ahmed Ezz, businessman within Mubarak's closest circle as well as NDP secretary general. The sentence handed down by the court yesterday has come within an atmosphere of highly-charged expectations over the results of the voting in the first presidential elections of the post-Mubarak era, the outcome of which gave rise yesterday to a great deal of complaints over irregularities by the four main candidates in the running. To those of the Nasserist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi, which non-official figures show as the first to be excluded from the second round, have been added appeals by the pro-Islamist moderate Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh as well as those held to be the winners: Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi and the last Prime Minister under Mubarak, Ahmad Shafik. Within the next week the verdict on Mubarak is set to come in on the killing of protestors during the January 2011 uprising. Standing as defendants in the same trial with him is also Habib El Edly. The former leader has been charged, along with his sons Gamal and Alaa, also of embezzlement. For the first crime the prosecution has requested a death sentence. The verdict is expected to come in on Saturday and is coming at an acutely delicate moment between the first and second rounds of the presidential elections, and for this reason speculation abounds on the possibility of the latter being postponed.
(ANSAmed).
