Hala Zayed provides a press conference with updates about coronavirus cases in Luxor and Aswan, in March 2020, when she was Egypt's health minister. Her husband Mohamed Al Ashhab has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. EPA
Hala Zayed provides a press conference with updates about coronavirus cases in Luxor and Aswan, in March 2020, when she was Egypt's health minister. Her husband Mohamed Al Ashhab has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. EPA
Hala Zayed provides a press conference with updates about coronavirus cases in Luxor and Aswan, in March 2020, when she was Egypt's health minister. Her husband Mohamed Al Ashhab has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. EPA
Hala Zayed provides a press conference with updates about coronavirus cases in Luxor and Aswan, in March 2020, when she was Egypt's health minister. Her husband Mohamed Al Ashhab has been sentenced to

Egypt sentences former health minister's ex-husband to 10 years in prison over corruption


Kamal Tabikha
  • English
  • Arabic

An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced the ex-husband of Egypt’s former health minister Hala Zayed to 10 years in prison and fined him EGP 500,000 ($26,430) for corruption.

Mohamed Al Ashhab, a high-ranking official in Egypt’s largest state-owned life insurance company and three others were arrested in December for accepting an EGP 5 million bribe from the owners of an unlicensed private hospital who wanted a licence issued despite the establishment not meeting the necessary standards.

An accomplice of Al Ashhab's, Mohamed Beheiry — a former Egyptian Health Ministry official in the licensing department — was sentenced to one year in prison, according to court officials at the trial on Wednesday.

The other two accomplices, middle men who enabled communication between Al Ashhab, who worked for Misr Insurance, and the owners of the private hospital, were acquitted.

They are Attia El Fayoumy, a physician and owner of the El Fayoumy Hospital, and Hossam El Din Foda, a retired military officer.

All four were arrested in December, although they were not named in the prosecution statement at the time.

Prosecutors said at the time that through the testimony of 13 witnesses, including the owners of the unlicensed hospital who confessed when they were approached by security officials, they were able to uncover details of the corruption.

The defendants phones were also analysed and prosecutors found a number of correspondences between them confirming the corruption, the prosecution’s statement said.

The hospital owners were reportedly asked to co-operate with the police to deceive Al Ashhab so that he could be brought to justice.

Al Ashhab’s lawyer this week told local news outlets that hospital owners had obtained their licence through co-operation with security officials.

Former minister Ms Zayed resigned from her position last October in a move that surprised many commentators on social media, who were surprised that she was leaving after her much-lauded management through the Covid-19 pandemic.

There was no official comment at the time regarding her resignation.

After Wednesday’s ruling, users on Egyptian social media channels pondered what the verdict will mean for Ms Zayed, whose replacement has not yet been announced — Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar has been the country’s acting health minister since October.

Some cited reports published in The New Arab, a newspaper often highly critical of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's regime, claiming that Ms Zayed was herself entrenched in the corruption scandal and that larger sums of money than the EGP 5 million promised to her ex-husband were at play in the case.

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Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

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Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

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Tearful appearance

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday. 

Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow. 

She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.

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A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

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Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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ENGLAND SQUAD

For first two Test in India Joe Root (captain), Jofra Archer, Moeen Ali, James Anderson , Dom Bess, Stuart Broad , Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes. Reserves James Bracey, Mason Crane, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Robinson, Amar Virdi.

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Where: du Arena, Abu Dhabi

When: Saturday November 24

Rating: 4/5

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8.50pm: Rated Conditions (TB) Dh240,000 1,600m | Winner: Cosmo Charlie, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson

9.20pm: Handicap (TB) Dh165,000 1,400m | Winner: Bochart, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar

10pm: Handicap (TB) Dh175,000 2,000m | Winner: Quartier Francais, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe

 

F1 2020 calendar

March 15 - Australia, Melbourne; March 22 - Bahrain, Sakhir; April 5 - Vietnam, Hanoi; April 19 - China, Shanghai; May 3 - Netherlands, Zandvoort; May 20 - Spain, Barcelona; May 24 - Monaco, Monaco; June 7 - Azerbaijan, Baku; June 14 - Canada, Montreal; June 28 - France, Le Castellet; July 5 - Austria, Spielberg; July 19 - Great Britain, Silverstone; August 2 - Hungary, Budapest; August 30 - Belgium, Spa; September 6 - Italy, Monza; September 20 - Singapore, Singapore; September 27 - Russia, Sochi; October 11 - Japan, Suzuka; October 25 - United States, Austin; November 1 - Mexico City, Mexico City; November 15 - Brazil, Sao Paulo; November 29 - Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi.

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Updated: July 27, 2022, 2:42 PM`