Egypt court frees 'blood' MP
CAIRO (AFP) — A Cairo court has acquitted a ruling party MP of selling faulty blood bags to the health ministry, a charged that caused widespread panic and a sharp drop in blood donations last year, Wednesday's press said.
Hani Surur and six other defendants from the Hayedelena for Advanced Medical Industries Co (HAMIC) involved in the blood scandal were acquitted on Tuesday, the state-owned Al-Gomhuria reported.
In January 2007, a health ministry employee publicly accused Surur, a member of President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party, of fraud after HAMIC, the health ministry's only blood bag supplier, sold the ministry tens of thousands of faulty bags.
The exact nature of the problem was unclear but a mass panic ensued over rumours that the bags were contaminated, leading to a 70-percent drop in blood donations.
Surur's parliamentary immunity was lifted in June 2007 and he was arrested in September.
