The Court of Cassation accepted on Wednesday the challenge of ex-premier Ahmed Nazif into his five-year jail sentence over profiteering charges and set February 3 for retrial.

In July, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Nazif to 5 years in prison and fined him EGP 53 million over illicit gain after he filed an appeal over an initial three-year jail sentence.

The court ordered Nazif to repay 48 million pounds seized illegally by his wife Zeinab Zaki and his two sons Sherif and Khaled.

The penalty was toughened at a call from the Illicit Gains Authority that told the court reviewing the appeal that the 3-year imprisonment sentence is not commensurate with the deed.

Nazif was accused of squandering EGP 64 million in public funds, by accepting unlawful gifts from State-owned media institutions and forcing governmental bodies to make donations to a fake educational institution owned by him.

Sources: MENA