Former Syrian minister sentenced to 22 year imprisonment, fined

The Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Am issued on Saturday said that the economic court in Damascus had sentenced the Syrian former Deputy Premier Salim Yassin and the former transport minister Mufieed Abdul Karim as well as the Syrian businessman Munir Abu Khaddour for 22 and a half years imprisonment and charged them to pay a fine altogether of USD 268 million and of 400 million Syrian pounds as a compensation for the Syrian airline company.

The paper quoted judicial sources as saying that the three convicted persons benefited from two pardoning that resulted in reducing their penalty only to 10 years, but if they abstain from paying the fine they will stay for one more year in prison, according to the Syrian law and then, the state will only confiscate the transferred and non- transferred sums owned by the three men. N.