Egypt court acquits ex-PM for failing to implement its order

Former Egyptian prime minister Hisham Qandil, who served under ousted President Mohammed Morsi, was today acquitted by a court here for failing to implement a court ruling to re-nationalise a company that was privatised in 1996.
A Cairo court has accepted the appeal presented by Qandil and overturned his one-year jail sentence.
In September 2013, the Cairo Misdemeanour Court upheld a ruling against former Prime Minister Qandil sentencing him to one year in prison for failing to implement the Administrative Court verdict ordering the re-nationalisation of the Tanta Flax and Oil Company.
Qandil served as the prime minister of Egypt from August 2012 to July 2013 during the presidency of Morsi.

He left office after the ouster of the Islamist president on 3 July, 2013.
Qandil represented an alliance of pro-Morsi Islamist groups in meetings with European Union mediators, who tried to persuade the military-installed interim government to launch a fully inclusive transition process that included the Muslim Brotherhood.
However, he kept a low profile after the authorities launched a fierce crackdown on the Brotherhood in August last year, in which hundreds of people have been killed and thousands detained.