Egyptian judge prosecuted over drug-related bribery

The Egyptian prosecution referred Saturday a senior judge to criminal court over accepting a bribe to acquit a defendant in a drug smuggling case, official MENA news agency reported.

The judge was caught at a coffee shop in Alexandria, with an envelope containing 250,000 Egyptian pounds (14,000 U.S. dollars) as part of a total bribe of 650,000 pounds in his possession.

The judge has submitted his resignation to the Justice Ministry and it was immediately accepted.

It is the second time in a month that a judge has been arrested and sacked in a drug-relevant case in the most populous Arab country.

On Nov. 10, a chief of a misdemeanor court was arrested with 68 kilograms of hashish drugs in his car in a tunnel between Suez and North Sinai provinces northeast of the capital Cairo.

The drugs were uncovered by a police dog at a checkpoint in the tunnel and the judge was later referred to criminal court.

Egypt suffers a high rate of drug smuggling, abusing and addiction with about 10.4 percent of the population aged from 15 to 65 taking drugs, said Amr Osman, director of Egypt's Drug Control and Addiction Treatment Fund, in a previous interview with Xinhua.

Hashish, painkillers such as Tramadol and Tamol, heroin and marijuana are the most prevalent drugs in Egypt and the police crack an average of 200 drug-related cases every day. Enditem