Egypt's former agriculture minister Salah Helal was referred on Saturday to criminal court on corruption charges along with a number of other defendants. Helal was arrested in September, on the same day he handed in his resignation as agriculture minister. According to a prosecution statement in September, Helal is accused of taking bribes from Ayman Mohamed, one of the defendants, in return for smoothing over legal procedures for the latter to own 2500 acres of land in the Natroun Valley. Another defendant, Mohamed Mahmoud, is accused of playing the role of mediator between the two men. A media gag was imposed on the case in August. Some of the bribes came in the form of a membership of El-Ahly club, worth some LE 140,000, and another LE 8.25 million worth of residential units in Cairo's 6th October City district, according to prosecution. Shortly after news of the case broke, prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab handed in his resignation to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. Sherif Ismail, the former petroleum minister in Mahlab's cabinet, is the country's current prime minister. source: Ahram Online
