UPDATE: Customs Authority head arrested four days pending investigation

CAIRO – 10 July 2018: Head of Egypt’s Customs Authority, Gamal Abdel Azim, was arrested on Monday for four days pending investigation over bribery charges, sources told Egypt Today.

Abdel Azim reportedly received a LE 1 million bribe from a textile importer to skip his customs clearance procedures; investigation is still underway.

On Sunday, customs officials at the Cairo International Airport foiled a smuggling attempt of medicine and silver artifacts by eight individuals, including airport staff and pharmaceutical company owners, to evade taxes worth about LE 15 million.

The defendants claimed the medicine and silver artifacts were for personal use.

Customs officials at the Cairo International Airport was able to foil numerous smuggling attempts carried out in cooperation with airport staff over the recent period.

Bribery and corruption have been rife in Egypt for long decades and were among the main causes for the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime President Hosni Mubarak.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi always stressed on applying strict measures within the government institutions to crack down any violation. He hailed the role played by the ACA in different occasions.

Egypt ranked 108th out of 176 countries on Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Perception Index, scoring 34 points, down two points compared to 2015. A score of zero is highly corrupt while 100 is very clean.

Additional reporting by Wala Ali