CAIRO, May 6 (Aswat Masriya) - A Giza court acquitted Islamist politician Hazem Salah Abu Ismail from charges of insulting the police force, accepting Abu Ismail's challenge against a one year verdict handed to him.

In September, Abu Ismail was sentenced in absentia to a year's hard labour for insulting a police officer.

The trial procedures were restarted, after Abu Ismail took the legal procedures needed for a retrial. 

The court had accused Abu Ismail of insulting a police officer in a video released online on December 30, 2012. The defendant is heard insulting the police and then minister of interior Ahmed Gamal al-Deen, according to the court.

Abu Ismail was arrested in July 2013 amid a crackdown on Islamists. The former presidential hopeful was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2014 for forging his mother's nationality in official papers he submitted to enter the 2012 presidential elections race. 

Abu Ismail, a lawyer and Islamist figure with a wide following, was eventually disqualified from the  race after reports that his mother was a dual national.

Egypt's election law bans candidates who, themselves or their parents, carry any nationality other than Egyptian.

The seven year sentence has been appealed but the appeal was turned down last month, making the decision final, since there is no room for further appeals.