Egypt acquits ex-minister over Israel gas deal
Sameh Fahmy was sentenced in 2012 to 15 years for allegedly selling natural gas at below-market price
CAIRO — An Egyptian court acquitted on Saturday an oil minister who served under former president Hosni Mubarak in a retrial after a 2012 conviction for selling Israel natural gas at below-market price.
The Cairo court acquitted former oil minister Sameh Fahmy along with five other petroleum officials.
An appeals court ordered a retrial in March 2013 for the defendants after they were initially found guilty in 2012 and sentenced to between three and 15 years in jail.
Several Mubarak-era figures including the ousted autocrat have been acquitted in retrials after being initially indicted.
In November, Mubarak and his interior minister Habib al-Adly were cleared of charges of killing peaceful protesters during the 2011 uprising that unseated him.
Mubarak was also cleared in that trial of exporting gas to Israel at below-market price.
The sale of gas to Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 after four wars, was always controversial in the Arab world’s most populous country.
Sinai-based militants have continuously sabotaged the pipeline after Mubarak’s ouster in 2011 until the export deal was halted in April 2012.