20110510
reuters

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's former tourism minister was sentenced to five years' imprisonment on Tuesday for squandering public funds, the second member of former President Hosni Mubarak's cabinet to be jailed for financial misconduct.

Zoheir Garranah was among several former officials to be investigated after an uprising against Mubarak, who left office on February 11.

The army generals who took control from Mubarak are under pressure to take a hard line against high-level corruption and show they are forging political change before an election for a new parliament in September.

Egypt's public prosecutor extended Mubarak's detention by 15 days on Tuesday as an investigation continued into abuse of public funds and the killing of protesters, a judicial source said.

Mubarak, who has denied the allegations, was first detained on April 13 but has been in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since he suffered health problems under questioning.

Garranah was found guilty of selling two tracts of public land in Red Sea province below their market value to two businessmen, the Cairo criminal court said in a statement.

The three were fined 293 million Egyptian Pounds and ordered to give back the two plots.

One of the businessmen was Hussein Habib Sajwani, chairman of the Dubai-based property developer Damac, which bought one of the plots.