CAIRO: The former head of restoration in Islamic Cairo and two other Egyptian culture ministry officials were jailed for 10 years on Wednesday for receiving bribes from contractors, a judicial source said.
A Cairo court also ordered Ayman Abdel Monem, Hussein Ahmed Hussein and Abdel Hamid Qotb to pay fines of between LE 200,000 ($36,400 dollars) and LE 550,000 pounds.
Abdel Monem was in charge of the multi-million dollar restoration of Islamic Cairo, Hussein headed a similar project in southern Egypt and Qotb was in charge of engineering at the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Five contractors who were found guilty of paying the trio bribes were given 10-year suspended sentences and a sixth was acquitted.
Abdel Monem and Hussein were arrested shortly before Qotb in August 2007 following allegations from contractors who claimed to have paid bribes to secure contracts worth around $7 million.
The contractors also said they had given cars as gifts and built a Mediterranean villa for Abdel Monem.
For around six years, Abdel Monem had been supervising the restoration of Cairo s old Islamic quarter, which UNESCO included in its list of world heritage sites in 1979.
The project involves the restoration of some 150 mosques, caravansaries, fortifications and other sites.
Abdel Monem was also responsible for the cultural development fund, which managed the budget for numerous cultural activities in the Egyptian capital, including its international cinema festival.
The criminal court has no right of appeal, but the trio can take their case to the supreme court, the judicial official said. -AFP
