(AFP Photo)
Nasr City Misdemeanour Court sentenced on Monday Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim to two years in prison for refraining from carrying out a court verdict.
Ibrahim was also suspended from his position as minister, fined EGP 202, and was appointed an EGP 2,000 bail.
Aly Ahmed and Abdel Aleem Selim had previously filed a lawsuit against Ibrahim, accusing him of refraining from carrying out two court verdict issued by the Administrative Judiciary Court, granting them EGP 25,000 each as compensation for political detention from 1994 to 1996, reported Al-Ahram.
Gamal Eid, lawyer and director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, stated that the crime of refraining from carrying out a court verdict is punishable by imprisonment.
Article 123 of the penal code states: “Any public employee who refrains from carrying out a court verdict is to be punished by imprisonment and suspension.”
“Nevertheless, this is a primary verdict,” Eid said. “If Ibrahim challenges it, then the verdict will not be carried out unless it is ratified by the Court of Cassation.”
The Ministry of Interior released a statement saying that the court verdict was issued in absentia. It added that the ministry is currently carrying out the process of challenging the verdict.
The ministry stated that it is devoted to carrying out all compensation verdicts issued before the January 2011 revolution. It said EGP 84,647,621 worth of compensations have been paid this year to fulfil 4,426 court verdicts, implying that the process of paying compensations is time-consuming. It added that the ministry is coordinating with the Ministry of Finance to be able to afford carrying out all the accumulating verdicts, some dating back to the 1980s.
