Bribery defendant is an administrative employee, not a judge - State Council

Wednesday 28-12-2016 PM 05:02
Bribery defendant is an administrative employee, not a judge - State Council

State Council building, (ASWAT MASRIYA/ Mohamed El Raai

CAIRO, Dec 28 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's State Council held an urgent meeting on Wednesday to discuss the arrest of one of its employees for bribery yesterday. 

The council said in an official statement that the employee works in the administrative division of the council, not as part of the judicial board. 

The Administrative Control Authority (ACA) said on Tuesday that a manager at the State Council was detained on charges of bribery for four days pending investigation.

Some EGP 24 million and USD 4 million were found in the defendant's home, in addition to 1 million Saudi Riyals, and other belongings of gold and gifts.

In the statement, the council attributed responsibility of the money and belongings found to the defendant alone.

"He [the defendant] bears the burden of proof regarding the sources of the money in the prosecution's investigation," the statement read.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said in a speech on Wednesday that regulatory bodies alone cannot combat corruption, in reference to the aforementioned incident.

"We should all work together to fight all kinds of violations," he said during the inauguration of a new fish farm and floating bridge in Port Said. 

Egypt ranked 88 out of 168 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2015, with a score of 36 on a scale where 0 means highly corrupt and 100 means very clean.

In a poll by Transparency International published in May, Egypt ranked second after Yemen, when citizens were asked about bribes they have to pay to get public services.

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