CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court has sentenced the deputy governor of the country’s second-largest city to 12 years in prison on corruption charges.
The Cairo criminal court also sentenced Souad el-Kholy, deputy governor of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, to a one-year suspended sentence for bribery, profiteering and squandering public funds on Wednesday. The court acquitted five local businessmen in the same case.
El-Kholy can appeal the verdict against her.
She became Alexandria’s deputy governor in 2015 and was arrested two years later, in October 2017, in a case linked to illegal seizures of state land, illegal construction and building violations. She is the most senior female official to be arrested on corruption charges.
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Alexandria is notorious for illegal construction and demolition of historical buildings to make way for high-rise apartment towers.