Muscat: The Supreme Court of Oman on Wednesday referred a corruption case against Mohammad Bin Nasser Al Khusaibi, the former minister of commerce and industry, and other senior officials, to the Muscat Appeals Court.
Al Khusaibi and Fathi Ala’a Al Deen, the managing director of Consolidated Contractors Company, will appeal the verdict in the case, according to the Azamn daily newspaper.
Al Khusaibi was found guilty in 2014 by Muscat’s Court of First Instance of paying bribes worth 380,000 Omani rials (Dh3.61 million) to the former undersecretary of the ministry of transport and communication for civil aviation to win a contract for the first phase of the Muscat International Airport.
Directors-general of some ministries and company executives have been among the dozens of Omanis and expatriates convicted and jailed in a series of cases involving kickbacks for contracts awarded by state-run institutions since late last year.
Oman’s Sultan Qaboos has waged an anti-graft campaign following protests in several Omani cities in 2011 that were largely triggered by corruption and unemployment, issues that fuelled uprisings around the Arab world.
Al Khusaibi was jailed for three years and fined 800,000 Omani rials.
Mohammad Al Ameri, who served as undersecretary of the ministry of transport and communication, was jailed for three years, fined 1.2 million rials, and barred from public office for 30 years.
The court also sentenced Fathi Ala’a Al Deen to six months in jail and fined him 400,000 rials.
Al Ameri has denied receiving the money and pleaded not guilty. Al Khusaibi and Ala’a Al Deen pleaded guilty and expressed remorse for their actions.
Al Khusaibi was appointed commerce minister after the 2011 protests prompted a cabinet overhaul, only to be replaced three days later.
He previously served as secretary-general of the dissolved National Economy Ministry.
