Egypt PM sentenced in absentia to one year

CAIRO - Agence France-Presse

Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Qandil. REUTERS Photo

An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced Prime Minister Hisham Qandil to a jail term of one year in absentia for failing to implement a 2011 ruling, sources said, adding the verdict was merely symbolic.
 
The Cairo misdemeanours court sentenced Qandil for failing to implement a ruling by an administrative court ordering the nationalisation of a textile factory, the judicial sources said.
 
Qandil, who heads Islamist President Mohamed Morsi's government, was also fined 2,000 Egyptian pounds (about $290) and was ordered to be removed from his post.
 
According to judicial sources, sentences in absentia against serving prime ministers and officials are common and not implemented. The officials are only made to pay the fine.

New trial for Egypt's Mubarak set for May 11

A retrial of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak over his role in the deaths of protesters in 2011 is to open on May 11, judicial sources told AFP on Wednesday.
 
The retrial was meant to begin on April 13, but Judge Mostafa Hassan Abdallah recused himself in an opening session that lasted just seconds and sent the case to the Court of Appeal to choose a new circuit.