On Wednesday, an Egyptian court sentenced the husband of the former Minister of Health to prison, in the case known in the media as “bribery of the Ministry of Health.”
The Cairo Criminal Court ruled that the ex-husband, Muhammad Abdul-Majid al-Ashhab, Muhammad Abdul-Majid Hussain al-Ashhab, who works as a senior specialist at the Misr Life Insurance Company, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 Egyptian pounds (regarding $26,000), according to the local Al-Shorouk newspaper.
It also sentenced Mohamed Ahmed Beheiry, director of the licenses department at the Free Treatment Foundation, to one year in prison with hard labor.
The verdict included exempting the accused and the bribery brokers from punishment in accordance with the law following their confession, namely Mr. Attia Ibrahim Al-Fayoumi, owner of Al-Fayoumi Hospital, and Hussam Al-Din Abdullah Fouda, an armed forces officer with a pension.
The Public Prosecution had ordered the referral of the four defendants to criminal trial, and charged the first defendant with asking for 5 million Egyptian pounds (regarding 264,000 dollars) and taking 600,000 pounds from him as a bribe from the owners of a private hospital, in exchange for using his influence to obtain decisions and benefits from officials in the Ministry of Health. Related to the failure to implement the decision to close the hospital to run it without a license.
The Public Prosecution said that the convict prepared a false report that contained no violations, and the fourth defendant was accused of committing that forgery.
The Public Prosecution stated that it established the evidence in the lawsuit from the statements of 13 witnesses, including the two owners of the hospital, who informed the Administrative Control Authority of the bribery incident upon its request, and followed the convict with the permission of the Public Prosecution until his arrest was complete.
Among them, the Public Prosecution referred to the statements of the two defendants who mediated in the bribery, and the examination of the accused’s seized mobile phones and the correspondence that confirmed the commission of the incident.
The accusations were also proven through, according to the prosecution, all the hospital’s inspection reports, both valid and forged, and reviewing bank documents proving the fact that the bribery amount was given, in addition to what was supported by the Public Prosecution’s witnessing and listening to the meeting and conversations that authorized its recording.
