Egyptian Court Upholds Verdict in Illegal Immigration Case After Rejecting Prosecution Appeal

An Egyptian appellate court has upheld a first-instance verdict against an illegal immigration gang after dismissing the prosecution's appeal for being filed after the legal deadline.

• The Court of Cassation for human trafficking and illegal immigration crimes, chaired by Judge Khaled al-Shibasi, rejected the public prosecution's appeal on procedural grounds because it was submitted after the statutory 40-day filing period.
• The first-instance court had sentenced three defendants to three years' imprisonment and fined them 100,000 Egyptian pounds each, sentenced six others to two years and fined them 50,000 pounds each, and acquitted four additional defendants.
• The court stated that the prosecution's argument that the first chief prosecutor had been delegated authority by the attorney general did not apply to appeals, which require a formal written delegation.