Read < 1 minute

An Egyptian court has sentenced a former agriculture minister to 10 years in prison for corruption, months after he was arrested for taking bribes.

Salah Helal had been detained in September after being ordered to step aside during a corruption scandal that prompted the entire government to resign a few days later.

His chief of staff Muhyidin Mohamed Said was also sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Helal was also fined 1m Egyptian pounds ($112,600), and Said was fined 500,000 Egyptian pounds, AFP news agency reports.

AFP reports that the businessman who paid the bribe and another who is said to have facilitated it were spared jail because they confessed.

The judge also ordered Helal to pay a EGP 1 million ($113,000) fine.