A self-exiled Egyptian businessman whose allegations of corruption against the country’s military sparked rare protests has been sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for tax evasion.
Mohamed Ali earlier this year released a series of viral videos from Spain pitching himself as a former government insider who witnessed high-level corruption and large-scale misuse of funds as a construction contractor for the military.
He did not provide evidence to support his claims.
He also called for the ouster of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, a former military officer, who has dismissed the corruption accusations as “sheer lies and defamation.”
Ali’s videos led to scattered street protests against the president in several Egyptian cities in September. Public protest has been almost completely silenced over the past years by draconian measures imposed under al-Sisi.
After they swiftly stamped out the demonstrations, security forces escalated a long-running crackdown on suspected dissidents, jailing thousands in the weeks that followed. Hundreds of them have since been released.
The online version of newspaper al-Akhbar on Monday said that a Cairo criminal court also sentenced Ali over the weekend to pay about 42 million Egyptian pounds (US$2.6 million) after his firm, Amlak, failed to settle a dispute with the government over taxes owed between October 2012 and September 2016.
He was also fined 50,000 Egyptian pounds.
Al-Akhbar did not specify the day of the sentencing.
The verdict can be appealed.
Ali had claimed that he left Egypt while the military owes him 220 million Egyptian pounds for services he provided.
During more than 15 years of working with the military, Ali said that his company routinely paid bribes to the military’s business arm, the Egyptian Armed Forces Engineering Authority, to secure countless contracts for lucrative projects, such as the building of presidential palaces and luxury hotels.
While dismissing the corruption allegations, al-Sisi has said that he would continue building new presidential residences for the good of Egypt.
Over the years, critics have questioned the expanding role of the military in the business world and its economic interests, as well as its seemingly unfair competition with the country’s private sector.
They have said that the military enjoys advantages because it is exempted from taxation and proper auditing.
Military spokesman Tamer al-Rifai earlier this year said that the military has carried out 2,300 projects employing 5 million Egyptians.
Al-Sisi said that the military has overseen road projects costing 175 billion Egyptian pounds and that his government has carried out projects worth more than YS$245 billion.
He said that he would inaugurate 14 new cities next year.
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