Egypt ex-tourism minister gets 5 yrs for corruption

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CAIRO, May 10 (AFP): Egypt's former tourism minister Zuheir Garranah was jailed for five years Tuesday on charges of corruption, a justice source said. Garranah, who was sentenced along with two businessmen, was charged with wasting public funds worth 51 million dollars, after authorising the sale of state-owned land for well below the market price. He is the second minister who served under toppled president Hosni Mubarak to be jailed for fraud, as part of a sweeping probe into corruption by the country's new military rulers. Garranah is said to have ordered the sale of 305 million square metres-some of which was oil-rich-to businessmen Hisham al-Hazeq and Hussein Segwani for one dollar per square metre for tourism projects. He was detained on February 17, less than a week after a popular uprising forced Mubarak to step down and hand power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The trial of corrupt officials, including Mubarak, was a key demand of protesters. Adly, who ran Mubarak's security services for more than a decade before the strongman's overthrow in the face of 18 days of mass protests, was convicted of money-laundering and illicitly enriching himself while in office.