213 illegal gold miners sentenced to year in prison

CAIRO - 4 June 2017: 213 illegal gold miners were sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of LE 250,000 Saturday by the head of Al-Qoseir Misdemeanor Court, Tamer Al Amir. Among them are 24 Sudanese miners.

There was a heavy security presence around the court complex during the trial, Youm7 reported.

Many rare and valuable stones were found by the security campaign over three days in different areas of Al-Qoseir and Marsa Alam.

Red Sea Governor Maj. Gen. Ahmed Abdullah said about 26 random tunnels used for gold prospecting were closed due to firm instructions by the security forces, as they were planning to eliminate all illegal methods of gold mining widespread in the rich deserts of the governorate by local residents.

Gold prospecting is a crime under Egyptian law, and in February 2017 the Cabinet has tightened penalties for illegal gold mining. The accused could be imprisoned for 2-5 years and fined no more than LE 10 million, based on the value of the extracted stones, Aswat Masriya rep