Amr Moussa campaigner slapped with 10-year jail term for fraud

Member of Moussa's presidential campaign gets ten years in prison for forging hundreds of citizens' signatures in support of his candidate; Ex-Arab League chief says he was unaware of scheme Magdi Mohamed, campaign coordinator for former presidential candidate and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, was slapped with a ten-year jail sentence on Tuesday by a Luxor criminal court after being found guilty of forging citizens' signatures in support of Moussa's candidacy. Mohamed, who is reportedly still at large, was found to have used some 600 national identification cards in the Upper Egyptian city of Luxor to forge signatures supporting Moussa's presidential candidacy. Mohamed was reportedly aided by his brother, who works at a local government registrar's office. Mohamed's brother, meanwhile, was ordered by the court to pay an LE500 fine. Another employee of the registrar's office, Mohamed Hussein, was sentenced to five years in prison for involvement in the scheme. The head of the registrar's office, however, was acquitted of all charges. Moussa, who came in fifth place in Egypt's June presidential election, has denounced the forgeries, asserting that he had not been told of the scheme. The lawsuit against the defendants was initially filed by campaign coordinators for former presidential candidates Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, Mohamed Selim El-Awa and Hazem Abu-Ismail. From Ahraonline