Cairo criminal court acquitted Sameh Fahmy and five of his associates in the retrial in the case of exporting gas to Israel at low price and wasting public money.
As per the deal, the price of gas was to remain constant for 20 years. Prosecutors claimed that Egypt lost over USD 714 million due to the low prices at which the gas was sold.
Fahmy, who served as oil minister from 1999 to 2011, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in June 2012 for squandering public funds. The defendants, who were also fined USD 2.5 billion, appealed against the verdict in 2013.
Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, 86, and several of his aides were detained soon after his ouster following a mass uprising against his nearly three-decade long rule in 2011.