World Bulletin / News Desk

An Egyptian court on Saturday slapped former tourism minister Zuhair Garanah with a five-year jail term for facilitating the illegal acquisition of a plot of land owned by the government.

Saturday's verdict is final and cannot be appealed.

In May 2011, Garanah, who served under former president Hosni Mubarak, was sentenced to five years in jail in the same case, but he appealed the ruling.

Garanah was convicted of helping a businessman from the United Arab Emirates illegally earn around $41 million by selling him a plot of land on the Gulf of Suez in eastern Egypt for a price below its market price.

Garanah's presence at the top of the Tourism Ministry was terminated by the January 25 revolution, which ended Mubarak's autocracy in 2011.